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With quantum physics being a particularly difficult subject to teach because of its contextual distance from everyday life, the need for multiperspective teaching material arises. Quantum physics education aims at exploring these methods but often lacks physical models and haptic components. In this paper, we provide two analog models and corresponding teaching concepts that present analogies to quantum phenomena for implementation in secondary school and university classrooms: While the first model focuses on the polarization of single photons and the deduction of reasoning tools for elementary comprehension of quantum theory, the second model investigates analog Hardy experiments as an alternative to Bell’s theorem. We show how working with physical models to compare classical and quantum perspectives has proven helpful for novice learners to grasp the abstract nature of quantum experiments and discuss our findings as an addition to existing quantum physics teaching concepts.

Este trabalho apesenta alguns aspectos da difração no olho humano, tanto na pupila como nas células do cristalino e em estruturas no seu interior. As deduções relevantes são feitas em um Apêndice. Para complementar o entendimento dos fenômenos ópticos, são examinados alguns aspectos fisiológicos do olho, especialmente da retina. O objetivo do trabalho é fornecer exemplos que possam ajudar no ensino da óptica e motivar os estudantes a examinarem mais detalhadamente a difração, incluindo cálculos numéricos. Os exemplos incluem a visibilidade de estruturas como a Muralha da China quando observadas de longas distâncias, os pingos dos is das antigas bulas de remédio, a forma de moscas volantes e a razão pela qual vemos estrelas com pontas. Este artigo tem como objetivo atingir não apenas físicos e estudantes de física, mas, também, profissionais de outras áreas relacionadas à visão humana, como oftalmologistas, optometristas e técnicos e tecnólogos em oftálmica. This work presents some aspects of diffraction in the human eye, which occurs in the pupil, in the cells of the lens, and in structures within it. An Appendix presents the calculations necessary to understand the phenomenon of diffraction. To complement the understanding of optical phenomena, some physiological aspects of the eye, especially the retina, are examined. The purpose of the paper is to provide teachers and students with examples that can help in the study of optics and motivate students to take a closer look at diffraction, including numerical calculations. Examples include the visibility of structures like the Great Wall of China when viewed from long distances, the dots of the letters i and j from the drug information leaflet the shape of floaters, and why we see stars as pointy objects. This article targets physicists, physics students, and professionals from other areas related to human vision, such as ophthalmologists, opticians, and optometrists.

For around five decades, physicists have been experimenting with single quanta such as single photons. Insofar as the practised ensemble reasoning has become obsolete for the interpretation of these experiments, the non-classical intrinsic probabilistic nature of quantum theory has gained increased importance. One of the most important exclusive features of quantum physics is the undeniable existence of the superposition of states, even for single quantum objects. One known example of this effect is entanglement. In this paper, two classically contradictory phenomena are combined to one single experiment. This experiment incontestably shows that a single photon incident on an optical beam splitter can either be reflected or transmitted. The almost complete absence of coincident clicks of two photodetectors demonstrates that these two output states are incompatible. However, when combining these states using two mirrors, we can observe interference patterns in the counting rate of the single photon detector. The only explanation for this is that the two incompatible output states are prepared and kept simultaneously—a typical consequence of a quantum superposition of states. (Semi-)classical physical concepts fail here, and a full quantum concept is predestined to explain the complementary experimental outcomes for the quantum optical “non-waves” called single photons. In this paper, we intend to demonstrate that a true quantum physical key experiment (“true” in the sense that it cannot be explained by any classical physical concept), when combined with full quantum reasoning (probability, superposition and interference), influences students’ readiness to use quantum elements for interpretation.

This Resource Letter introduces theory, frameworks, research, and historical information that connect the experiences of people from ethnic/racial groups that have been minoritized and marginalized in science with a focus on physics. This resource is intended for all physicists who teach, advise, work in research groups with, and interact with other people. We start this report with an introduction to orient the audience and situate the resources to follow. We hope this Resource Letter will not only provide resources for the audience to review, but additionally generate conversation and discussions that can serve as a catalyst for making needed changes in physics and physics education.

Digital computation is central to almost all scientific endeavors and has become integral to university physics education. Students collect experimental data using digital devices, process data using spreadsheets and graphical software, and develop scientific programming skills for modeling, simulation, and computational work. Issues associated with the floating-point representation of numbers are rarely explored. In this article, problems of floating point are divided into three categories: significant-figure limits, propagation of floating-point representation error, and rounding. For each category, examples are presented of unexpected ways, in which the digital representation of floating-point numbers can impact the veracity of scientific results. These examples cover aspects of classical dynamics, numerical integration, cellular automata, statistical analysis, and digital timing. Suggestions are made for curriculum enhancement and project-style investigations that reinforce the issues covered at a level suitable for physics undergraduate students.

Distance education has expanded significantly over the last decade, but the natural sciences have lagged in the implementation of this instructional mode. The abrupt onset of the COVID-19 pandemic left educational institutions scrambling to adapt curricula to distance modalities. With projected effects lasting through the 2020–2021 academic year, this problem will not go away soon. Analysis of the literature has elucidated the costs and benefits of, as well as obstacles to, the implementation of e-learning, with a focus on undergraduate physics education. Physics faculty report that a lack of time to learn about research-driven innovation is their primary barrier to implementing it. In response, this paper is intended to help physics lecturers and lab instructors re-think their courses now that distance learning is far more prevalent due to the pandemic. This paper serves as an all-in-one guide of recommendations for successful distanced educational practices, with an emphasis on smartphones and social media. These technologies were chosen for their utility in a virtual environment. Additionally, this paper can be used as a resource for university administrators to adapt to the changing needs associated with new teaching modalities.

In this article, we report on the experience of implementing a virtual laboratory complex used in a general physics course, studied by students of technical and natural science specializations at Ural Federal University. We consider the possible use of virtual labs in three directions: in-person classes in the laboratory, conducting in a remote mode, and integration into an online course. Special attention is paid to the implementation of our virtual lab complex in the educational process during the pandemic.

Apresenta-se neste trabalho uma Revisão Sistemática da Literatura acerca da metodologia ativa de ensino Just-in-Time Teaching empregada dentro das subáreas Ensino de Física e Educação em Ciências. Após seleção de 123 periódicos nacionais e internacionais, a busca inicial resultou em 41 artigos – filtrados posteriormente e reduzidos a 34. Estes trabalhos subdividem-se em: Trabalho Teórico (n = 8), Apresentação de Propostas (n = 1) e Proposta com Aplicação (n = 25). É predominante o desenvolvimento de estudos no Ensino Superior (n = 24), em comparação com os níveis Básico (n = 7) e Técnico (n = 3). As pesquisas permitem perceber que a metodologia Just-in-Time Teaching contribui de forma positiva para a aprendizagem dos estudantes, o planejamento do professor e a dinâmica de sala de aula. This work presents a Systematic Review of Literature about Just-in-Time Teaching active methodology applied within the sub-areas Physics Teaching and Science Education. After selecting 123 national and international journals, the initial search resulted in 41 articles – later filtered and reduced to 34. These works are subdivided into: Theoretical Work (n = 8), Presentation of Proposals (n = 1) and Proposal with Application (n = 25). The development of studies in Higher Education (n = 24) is predominant, compared to the Basic (n = 7) and Technical (n = 3) levels. Research shows that Just-in-Time Teaching methodology contributes positively to student learning, teacher planning and classroom dynamics.

Structured inquiry-based learning assisted by a virtual laboratory is necessary for senior high students to help their conceptual understanding of wave optics. Experimental mixed-method design with one group pretest-posttest model used for physics class. Data collected from an interview, observation, pretest, and posttest in quantitative and qualitative data. The result is structured inquiry-based learning assisted by virtual laboratory effective improving students' conceptual mastery of wave optics. Furthermore, it also has been found that students still have some difficulties with interference and diffraction after learning.

Possibly the greatest irony of physics education is the difficulty of demonstrating optics in a visible way. The two most common solutions to this conundrum are to either use “all-inclusive” optical apparatuses, like a large- format camera, or to rely on classic ray-tracing diagrams. While the former looks elegant while demonstrating the inverted nature of its images at the front of a classroom, its inner workings and method of inverting remain mysterious. The mechanics of the latter are more evident but are limited to two dimensions and the willingness of students to accept the drawing as fact. More advanced solutions include computer modeling of 3D optics or benchtop ray-tracing demonstrations, but between these the demonstrator effectively trades a third dimension for verisimilitude. A more encompassing solution would be a means to trace rays in three dimensions through a variety of optical devices. Previously, the rub has been identifying a viable point source of rays for classroom demonstrations. In this paper, we present such a source and several sequences of demonstrations utilizing it.

Within physics education research (PER), inductive teaching strategies (e.g., inquiry-based teaching) have long been a goal. Yet others do not seem to be convinced that consensus exists with respect to the goals of physics education and identify three possible goals as: (1) to teach practical, factual knowledge, (2) to develop deep understandings of fundamental principles, and (3) to promote appreciation and use of scientific methods. Of course these three goals are not mutually exclusive, and many in the science education research community argue that developing an understanding of the nature of science (NOS) to be a worthy goal as well.

The introductory physics course taught in American College and Universities in the twenty-first century is a descendent of the natural philosophy—later, physics—course that developed in these institutions in the nineteenth century. In the present paper, I discuss the backgrounds of a number of prominent professors of natural philosophy who taught these courses. These came, variously from experience as high-school teachers, engineers, and clergymen. Few of them planned to become faculty members, as contrasted to today’s professors who have rigorous educational and research training to prepare themselves for their task.

Despite the fact that the free-body diagram is the most common method of representing forces in physics education, alternative means have been proposed over the years. Here we present a summary of the proposals found in the literature on physics education. We aim to discuss the pros and cons of these proposals, examine their degree of iconicity, and analyze their suitability for helping students understand the sum of forces (Newton’s second law), the action-reaction principle (Newton’s third law), and the nature of interaction (fundamental forces).

I begin this manuscript by taking the assumption that addressing issues of diversity in physics higher education (PHE) in the United States is a priority for institutional, departmental, and individual policy and practice. These issues encompass a symptom—the inequitable distributions of diverse student populations in physics in comparison with those of higher education in the United States at large—and the underlying malady—the sociocultural and political constitution of physics as a field. The objective in this work is to emphasize to the physics education research (PER) community the vocabulary with which we can appropriately frame our sociological research on minoritized student success in PHE. By systematically invoking such a perspective in our research and in our practice, outcomes will be more equity-oriented and we will instill a shift in the culture surrounding PHE to be more student-centered rather than discipline-centered.

In this article, we introduce the Intersectionally Conscious Collaboration (ICC) protocol to physics educators who seek to disrupt the long-standing inequities in their field. Recent studies raise awareness of diversity and inclusivity concerns and propose best practices for reducing bias toward women, LGBTQ+ students, and racially/ethnically minoritized students. Documented evidence demonstrates persistent challenges for women in physics in university settings, even addressing the identities and experiences of Women of Color. Simone Hyater-Adams and colleagues’ Critical Physics Identity framework, focused on Black physics identity, simultaneously considers racial and physics identities and individuals’ experiences within the context of structural and institutionalized oppression in the physics community. The ICC protocol includes six elements designed to support collaboration and inclusive instructional practices that respond to how multidimensional inequities and power differentials may manifest in academic settings.

PhysPort (www.physport.org) has become the go-to place for physics faculty to learn to apply research-based teaching and assessment in their classrooms. Usage has doubled every two years since the site was released in 2011, and 20% of all U.S. physics faculty are now verified educators on PhysPort. The lead author conceived of PhysPort in 2007 after meeting many physics faculty interested in incorporating results of physics education research (PER) in their classrooms but with no idea where to start. At the time, most PER results were buried in research journals not accessible to ordinary physics educators, and there was no central place to learn about results and implications for classroom practice. Throughout its development, PhysPort has been based on user research: we interview physics faculty about their needs, design the site based on those needs, and conduct usability testing to see how we meet those needs. PhysPort is a joint product of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and Kansas State University (K-State), with contributions from many universities, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and a library within the ComPADRE.org digital library. The site (originally called the PER User's Guide) was first funded by an NSF grant in 2009 and released in November 2011. This article presents an overview of resources on PhysPort, discussion of research and development of the site, and data on the continuing growth of site usage., Comment: Submitted to the Physics Teacher May 8, 2019; Resubmitted in response to reviews May 12, 2020

The static equilibrium properties of a spool, resting on an incline and subject to the tension exerted by a string wrapped around the core cylinder, are studied by means of Newtonian mechanics. The overall behaviour of this system is imagined to be similar to that of a doggie kept on a leash. Starting from the well-known mechanical properties of the spool on a horizontal plane, this analogy is used to construct an inquiry-based-learning lecture adopting the BSCS 5E instructional model. In this approach the static properties of the spool on the incline are used to conceive an Extend phase.

At the universities of Dresden, Vienna, and Zagreb, a laboratory course for prospective physics teachers was transferred to an online environment because of the lockdown in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this paper is to present and compare students’ and instructors’ considerations about the experiences with this laboratory course at these three universities and to formulate guidelines for organizing lab courses for prospective physics teachers. The research was conducted in three steps: first, interviews were conducted with prospective physics teachers (N = 10); second, an online questionnaire was administered to course participants (N = 99); and third, lab course instructors completed an online questionnaire (N = 8). The results show that an increase in creativity and confidence was expressed when conducting home experiments. Students who received support and guidance benefited more from the online lab course, but some students also experienced a greater time commitment. On a positive note, all participants thought outside-the-box during this lab experience and found solutions that led to new ways of conducting labs. Our study suggests that in future online or regular lab courses, students should have the chance to make decisions about experiments and be creative, with an emphasis on peer discussions and support from instructors.

A new diagnostic instrument, the Conceptual Survey on Wave Optics (CSWO), was developed and validated on 224 high school students (aged 18–19 years) in Croatia. The process of test construction, which included the testing of 61 items on the total of 712 students is presented. The final version of the test consists of 26 multiple-choice items which cover basic conceptual aspects of interference, diffraction, and polarization of light at the high school level. The construction of the test and the evaluation of its functioning and validity were conducted using the Rasch model. The test construct was based on the increasing levels of cognitive complexity in accordance with the Webb’s depth of knowledge model. The theoretical construct was empirically confirmed, and it suggests that the explanations of wave optics phenomena and their application to real-life situations are the most difficult aspects of high school students’ understanding of wave optics. The results of the Rasch analysis suggest that the CSWO is a reliable diagnostic instrument suitable for administration as a post-test to high school students after instruction on wave optics and possibly also for university level students in some introductory physics courses.

Stimulated by the European project “QTEdu CSA”, within the flagship “Quantum Technologies”, a community of researchers active in the fields of quantum technologies and physics education has designed and implemented an extracurricular course on quantum physics concepts and quantum technologies applications for high school. The course, which featured eight interactive lectures, was organized online between March and May 2021 and attended by about 250 students from all over Italy. In this paper, we describe the main tenets and activities of the course. Moreover, we report on the effectiveness of the course on students’ knowledge of the basic concepts of quantum physics and students’ views about epistemic aspects and applications of quantum technologies. Results show that the designed activities were effective in improving students’ knowledge about fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics and familiarizing them with quantum technology applications.

In the past few decades, educators and physics education researchers have been developing and evaluating instructional approaches designed to improve students’ conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills in physics for students with different prior preparation and backgrounds. These instructional approaches often require students to be active participants in their learning, and are often developed through research, which provides evidence for their effectiveness. Hence, we refer to them as “Evidence-Based Active Engagement” (EBAE) strategies.

We present a model of an induction program that supports early career physics teachers as well as experienced teachers who face new challenges in their teaching of physics. The model involves personal mentorship embedded in a teachers’ professional community of practice led by senior physics teachers and supported by a physics education research group. The program is entering its third year. We discuss the structure of the program and the function of its components and use excerpts from written reflections by community members (novice and senior physics teachers, mentors and mentees), artifacts that were generated by and shared in the community, agendas for the monthly community meetings, and ongoing working documents to illustrate our claims.

Over the past couple of decades, mobile devices have become ubiquitous items in our daily lives. Companies continuously add innovative features that make them more affordable and easy to use. This success in mobile technology has prompted educators and instructors to utilize these gadgets to boost the teaching-learning process by changing the traditional classroom to one that is interactive and engaging. For instance, there is strong potential for using mobile technology in physics education due to the different kinds of sensors that these devices have that make them unique and well-suited for experimentation in places where learning occurs naturally; a simple pendulum is a good example as it can be set up easily and with minimum material. Despite the remarkable number of apps available, only a handful of them have been developed for undergraduate physics education, the majority are virtual labs, and others acquire data in real time but need to be exported to a computer for analysis. By this token, we set out to build an app with matlab for reading the acceleration sensor of a mobile phone in real time when it is used as a pendulum's bob, and to obtain paramount physical parameters such as position, velocity, acceleration, and damping constant. The app empowers instructors and learners with graphical visualizations and with an immersive experience on how the experimental data and the theoretical models of oscillatory motion interact, and keeps teachers and students away from the hassle of using rarely available laboratory equipment and virtual simulations.

Studying chaotic systems at all levels of physics education can highly motivate students to learn physics. In this paper two simple systems, the Duffing oscillator and compass needle motion, are presented, which were used in a high school and in a university setting for teaching the basic ideas of chaotic motion. Studying both systems can begin with their simple mechanical models, which connect the mathematical description to tangible reality for the students. To surmount the mathematical difficulties of the theoretical treatment of the models, freeware software, the Dynamics Solver (DS), was applied. It will be shown how DS can facilitate students’ first steps toward chaotic systems both at college and high school levels. Downloadable materials in ZIP format, related to this paper, can be found in our web page ( http://csodafizika.hu/ds_girepmptl ).

In physics education, assessments address various forms of scientific knowledge. Most of the existing test instruments emphasise the assessment of content knowledge. These tests fail to measure the...

Even among the sciences, physics stands out as an unusually White- and male-dominated field. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) reports that only 19% of physics faculty are women, and less than 6% of physics faculty are African American or Hispanic. Particularly for female students, the transition from high school to a college major in physics has been identified as the most important point of attrition. As such, undergraduate physics education is a critical juncture where these trends can be interrupted. We approached this problem by using teaching strategies intended to promote inclusiveness in a calculus-based, introductory college physics course, a key requirement in many STEM majors and a gateway to the undergraduate physics major. Proponents of inclusive teaching strategies argue that using such strategies will benefit all students, particularly those from marginalized groups, increase the diversity of physics majors, and ultimately contribute to a more diverse community of physicists.

Physics faculty care about their students learning physics content. In addition, they usually hope that their students will learn some deeper lessons about thinking critically and scientifically. They hope that as a result of taking a physics class, students will come to appreciate physics as a coherent and logical method of understanding the world, and recognize that they can use reason and experimentation to figure things out about the world. Physics education researchers have created several surveys to assess one important aspect of thinking like a physicist: what students believe that learning physics is all about. In this article, we introduce attitudes and beliefs surveys and give advice on how to choose, administer, and score them in your classes. This article is a companion to “Best Practices for Administering Concept Inventories,” which introduces and answers common questions around concept inventories, which are research-based assessments of physics content topics.

While the majority of students that pursue a physics education learn mostly in a classroom setting, hands-on experiences can take their appreciation of physics to the next level. Summer internships offer just that, hands-on learning experiences and a taste of what a career in physics is really like. Many research-oriented institutions offer summer internship experiences for students at all levels, from high school through graduate school. The experience and connections made during these summer programs can be transformative to a student’s career and science identity.

This paper describes a high school or introductory university course in scientific programming that introduces the computer revolution into the physics curriculum at the beginning. In the first one-hour lecture, Euler’s method is presented and used to compute a solution to the analytically unsolvable two-body problem. In the remainder of the course a variety of physical systems are modeled and analyzed to demonstrate the remarkable power and wide range of applicability of the method.This paper describes a high school or introductory university course in scientific programming that introduces the computer revolution into the physics curriculum at the beginning. In the first one-hour lecture, Euler’s method is presented and used to compute a solution to the analytically unsolvable two-body problem. In the remainder of the course a variety of physical systems are modeled and analyzed to demonstrate the remarkable power and wide range of applicability of the method.

Models are at the heart of any physics discipline, and in recent decades physics education has shifted heavily toward teaching students how to think using models. Involving students in an investigation of a real phenomenon through measurements and the applications of models is an ideal learning experience for a physics student and is the aim of project-based learning. Astronomy provides a rich discipline in which to teach physics. This paper describes the scope and sequence of an investigation of the Milky Way Galaxy using a radio telescope in a high school physics course. Specifically, by analyzing HI spectra collected with a horn radio telescope at the school, the students were able to develop a simple model of the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy. Utilizing a radio telescope in physics and astronomy courses is not a new concept. However, the telescope described here is very affordable and can be built by any teacher or student interested in doing so.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made conducting in-person research a health risk for interviewers and participants. Near the start of the pandemic, many universities pivoted to emergency remote teaching where courses were delivered remotely in observance of safety guidelines. The safety guidelines also necessitated that research be done remotely. We designed a remote interview protocol for a computational physics based qualitative interview. Using Zoom’s features, we created an interview that allowed participants many modes of interacting with the interviewer and the interview task materials. We present the interview methods and evaluate the utility of remote interviews. We then generalize the experiences from designing and conducting remote interviews for contexts outside of computational physics and describe how task design choices were influenced by technology. We find that conducting interactive remote interviews can be an effective method for physics education researchers even outside of the pandemic.

Entre outros fatores, a melhoria da qualidade da educação escolar demanda investimentos na formação didático-pedagógica dos docentes. Essa não deve ficar restrita à formação inicial, mas também incluir à continuada, os auxiliando a refletirem sobre suas práticas, construírem e adaptarem soluções inovadoras, à altura dos desafios que encontram em seus respectivos contextos educacionais. Ao encontro desse objetivo, apresentamos os resultados de um estudo sobre a adoção de um dos métodos ativos mais utilizados no ensino de física, o Instrução pelos Colegas (IpC), que vem sendo sistematicamente adotado no contexto dos Mestrados Profissionais em Ensino (MPEs) e no qual se demanda a elaboração e implementação de um produto educacional inovador e disseminável. Elegemos os participantes de nossa investigação a partir de uma busca por dissertações de MPE em que os professores utilizaram o IpC em aulas de Física, no período de 2004 a 2020. Foram selecionadas e analisadas 45 dissertações e um questionário sobre a aplicação do IpC enviado aos seus autores sendo investigadas as modificações mais frequentes no método e algumas das justificativas para essas mudanças. As mudanças mais recorrentes identificadas no estudo dizem respeito às atividades de preparação prévia por parte dos alunos e a dinâmica de aplicação dos testes conceituais em sala de aula. Além disso, levantamos hipóteses explicativas para tais modificações que podem servir de ponto de partida para estudos futuros sobre o tema. Apresentamos também algumas considerações sobre esses resultados no contexto educacional brasileiro, comparando com os resultados de estudos norte-americanos. Among other factors, improving the quality of school education requires investments in the didactic-pedagogical training of teachers. This should include pre-service and in-service teacher training, helping them to reflect on their own practices and to build and adapt innovative solutions to face the challenges encountered in their educational contexts. In line with this, this article presents the results of a study on the adoption of one of the most used active methods in the teaching of physics: The Peer Instruction (PI). It is widely adopted in the context of Brazilian Professional Master of Teaching programs (PMTs) in which the development and implementation of an innovative and diffusible educational product is demanded. We chose the participants of our investigation based on a search for dissertations of PMT in which the teachers used the PI in physics classes, in the period from 2004 to 2020. Were selected and analyzed 45 master’s degree dissertations and applied a questionnaire about PI to its authors, to investigate the most frequent changes in the method and why these changes were made. The most recurrent changes are related to the preparation assignments and the application of ConcepTests in classroom. In addition, some explanatory hypotheses about it were elaborated and may serve as a starting point for future studies on the topic. Likewise, we compare the results achieved in the Brazilian educational context with the results of North American studies.

In 2015 the first observation of gravitational waves marked a breakthrough in astrophysics, and in technological research and development. The discovery of a gravitational-wave signal from the collision of two black holes, a billion light-years away, received considerable interest from the media and public. We describe the development of a purpose-built exhibit explaining this new area of research to a general audience. The core element of the exhibit is a working Michelson interferometer: a scaled-down version of the key technology used in gravitational-wave detectors. The Michelson interferometer is integrated into a hands-on exhibit, which allows for user interaction and simulated gravitational-wave observations. An interactive display provides a self-guided explanation of gravitational-wave-related topics through video, animation, images and text. We detail the hardware and software used to create the exhibit and discuss two installation variants: an independent learning experience in a museum setting (the Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum), and a science-festival with the presence of expert guides (the 2017 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition). We assess audience reception in these two settings, describe the improvements we have made given this information, and discuss future public-engagement projects resulting from this work. The exhibit is found to be effective in communicating the new and unfamiliar field of gravitational-wave research to general audiences. An accompanying website provides parts lists and information for others to build their own version of this exhibit., Comment: For the associated website, see http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/exhibit/

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted every aspect of academic activity, including the informal education and public engagement efforts of physics departments and institutions. As part of a large-scale national survey of the landscape of informal physics education programs, we have conducted a series of short interviews with directors and facilitators for a variety of programs in order to create a snapshot of whether and how programs have been able to adapt to the challenges and risks of the pandemic. Broadly, we find that programs are struggling to maintain any activity at all, and that those programs still in operation have relied largely on the efforts of individual director or facilitators to make substantial adaptations. Additionally, we find that those programs that have been most successful in maintaining activity benefit from strong, ongoing institutional support; we present the findings of this study both to complement existing research on formal spaces and to advocate for the continued support of informal physics education, which continues to play a crucial role in connecting departments to the public.

Despite decades of research into the gender disparity in physics education and physics practice, the underrepresentation of women in physics persists today. In physics education research, this gender disparity has been constructed as problematic, and numerous approaches from a variety of perspectives have been taken to both research and address it. In this paper, we explore the framings that have been used to motivate study of the underrepresentation of women in physics and the implications these framings have for introductory physics educators. We wish to acknowledge in the framing of this paper that the use of the term “underrepresentation” has prompted a specific characterization of the issues women face in physics (one of low numbers) and the responses (attempts to increase numbers). As its use is pervasive in the research into sex, gender, and physics, we continue here with the term underrepresentation, but suggest that “minoritization” might more appropriately signal the history of structural and institutional actions in physics cultures that have limited access for White and racialized women.

We present a novel activity to demonstrate the Doppler shift of a sound wave, incident at an angle, upon a moving reflector. This activity is intended for use in an introductory physics laboratory focused on preparing students for the health and medical fields. The activity is designed to simulate Doppler velocity measurements from ultrasound imaging. While there have been previous qualitative discussions of blood flow measurements in the physics education literature, they were without associated laboratory activities. The lab can be part of a life science physics curriculum that has been identified in need of reforms to meet the needs of students and the medical and biology community.

Asensor of the type BMP180, together with Arduino, is used to easily measure at­mospheric pressure and temperature at schools. The open source Arduino microcontroller board presents countless teaching applications in science and engineering projects. It allows students to implant their creativity into a friendly environment and take ownership of their scientific explorations. Schools take advantage by incorporating Arduino into the learning and teaching process because of the inexpensive cost of the experiments and the educational experiences being provided to students. The potential of the Arduino platform in physics education is well known, and most students are usually excited by physics labs based on it.