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This paper describes a teaching approach to the concept of distribution that uses a specific activity related to the field of statistical mechanics. The concept of velocity distribution of a particle system is dealt with using an Inquiry Based approach involving an experimental examination of Maxwell’s Distribution. Some outcomes of a teaching experiment are described.

In this paper we describe some results of an experimentation on Pre-Service Physics Teacher Education performed with a group of non-Italian Trainee Teachers engaged in one-month mobility activities at University of Palermo, in the framework of the EU Project “Move’in Science”. Some preliminary results of the experimentation of a Teaching/Learning Unit about Mechanical Wave propagation are presented, with particular reference to mental models about wave propagation evidenced by Trainee Teachers. Their understanding of the relevance of pupils’ mental model knowledge, in the framework of what a teacher should do to be an “effective” teacher, is also discussed.

Many researches have shown the pedagogical effectiveness of structured inquiry as a high performance tool in science education of undergraduate engineering students. In this paper we report the preliminary results of an extended investigation on the efficacy of the application of an open inquiry approach to the consolidation of the physics concepts regarding the topic of thermal energy transfer. We selected a sample of undergraduate mechanical engineering students, who passed the examination of the basic physics courses with good marks. Firstly, we investigated about resistant misconceptions in thermal physics by administrating a pre-activity questionnaire. Even the best marked students showed several deficiencies for what concerns, in particular, the practical knowledge of the physics of energy exchange by thermal radiation. Our open inquiry activity involved the students in a highly challenging learning environment, starting from the problem of projecting a thermodynamically efficient space base on Mars. Students were asked to work in groups and to perform scientific investigations regarding the best materials to use in the construction and the best design strategies to practice in order to collect as much thermal energy as possible during the Martian day. Students were stimulated to design and carry out their own laboratory activity by collecting, processing and analysing data, in order to discover new concepts and obtain more meaningful conceptual understanding of the physics underlying the process of thermal energy exchange by conduction, convection and radiation. All groups of students were invited to share the results of their explorative works within each other during the final discussion. Lastly, a final post-activity evaluation test was administered. Our open inquiry learning path has proved to be a great opportunity of enhancing the practical and reasoning skills of our engineering students. Here we discuss in detail the advantages and limits of the open inquiry-based teaching approach.

In this paper we address the question of the efficacy of an inquiry-based learning approach, with different levels of teacher’s guidance, to introduce the students to fundamental aspects of the Nature of Science (NoS). Explicit pedagogical approaches, in which specific instruction on the topic of NoS is provided in addition to the engagement in scientific inquiry, are generally considered more effective with respect to implicit methods, where NoS conceptions are expected to develop as a natural consequence of inquiry-based learning experiences alone. In our study, we further explore the connections between scientific inquiry and implicit development of NoS conceptions, by investigating the efficacy of different kinds of inquiry approaches. Our findings confirm limited gains in developing NoS views by following a guided inquiry approach and suggest a more efficient NoS instruction by applying integrated open-inquiry-based teaching strategies

This unit is aimed at engaging students in designing and building an energy-efficient scale model house through the understanding of relevant concepts of energy flow in thermal systems. It is developed into 4 subunits that analyse the different processes of thermal energy transfer (conduction, convection and radiation). The project intends also to introduce pupils to infrared thermography, thermal imaging and thermograms, i.e. infrared imaging science. The content area of the unit is energy and power in thermal systems. The subunits are suitable for 14-16 year old students while the data analysis and more theoretical parts of the unit are suitable for 16-18 year old students. The estimated duration of the whole unit is 30 hours. However, it can be used partially. The unit uses hands-on activities, scientific simulations and probe-ware measurements as tools to develop an Inquiry Based Approach

In this paper we present some preliminary results of a course for in-service teacher education held at University of Palermo in the framework of ESTABLISH, an EU FP7 Project aimed at extending the use of Inquiry Based Science Education in secondary level schools across Europe. In particular, we will report results of a survey performed with 15 second level Italian teachers about the ways they approach the analysis of a simple thermal physics situation, their typical conceptions and some aspects of their attitude with respect to methods aimed at performing classroom investigation in the light of the specific operative processes of an IB approach.

This paper presents some preliminary results of a research aimed at portraying individual models of description/explanation of electrical conduction in metals shown by physics prospective teachers and at studying how a specifically designed pedagogical environment can support an adequate evolution of their knowledge and disciplinary competencies. A teaching/learning sequence (TLS) on the subject matter, making use of custom Information Technology tools, aimed at facilitating and scaffolding learning, is shortly described. Some relevant points of the research pilot phases, like the analysis of prospective teachers’ spontaneous models of electrical conduction, the identification of significant correlations between microscopic and macroscopic aspects of knowledge, and the study of the improvement that a pedagogical environment based on experimental and modelling activities can give to prospective teachers’ model building abilities are discussed, in the light of specific research questions.

In this paper we present some results of a project-posed approach to the teaching of mechanical wave propagation focused on observations and measurements of wave properties in solids and on modelling of these properties by using different simulation tools. In particular, the propagation speed of sound waves in metallic rods is studied by using simple experimental arrangements based on the measurements of contact times between a small body and long metallic rods with which the body can collide. An interesting effect of this approach is the revision of students’ ideas about the rigid body model, studied at high school or college level and usually hardly followed by deepening on the fundamental role of wave propagation in the motion of real, elastic bodies. In particular, the performed experiments can stimulate students to reflect about the role of constraints in wave propagation and the general meaning of the constraint concept with respect to the dynamics of a real, elastic body. The approach has been developed in the context of a workshop on Mechanical Wave laboratory of the two-year post-graduate school for physics teacher education of University of Palermo. Some experimental results obtained by prospective teachers during lab activities and considerations about observed modifications in their attitude in utilising experiments and modelling to build pedagogical activities will be discussed.

In this paper we present a problem-based approach to the study of sound propagation devoted to pre-service physics teacher education at University of Palermo, Italy. Small groups of trainee teachers are proposed with real life situations and must organize themselves, define objectives, conduct researches, analyze results, and present conclusions. In particular, the problem of wave propagation in different materials is discussed, by starting from the real life situation of soundproofing a house. Examples of experiments performed by the trainee teachers with Real Time Laboratory (RTL) equipment and of interpretative models built and tested by using computer simulation environments are reported, together with considerations on their pedagogical efficacy in shifting pre-service teachers’ attention from the “Concept to Context” educational approach to the “Context to Concept” one.

In recent years, many research studies have pointed out that modelling environments, based on Information Technology, can supply effective pedagogical strategies dealing with complex real-world systems and everyday problem solutions. At the same time, physics teachers have discovered that video analysis is a relatively inexpensive and 188 worthwhile method of studying «real world» examples of phenomena. This kind of approach is often adopted to analyze sports physics. The study of physics of aircraft flight can be considered a real-world topic belonging to the everyone’s common experience. For this reason, here, we use a video-analysis software in order to measure the main dynamic variables, like speed and pitch, describing the longitudinal behaviour of a radio-controlled model aircraft during the take-off, cruise and landing. These experimental results are compared with the theoretical steady-state configurations obtained by using the phugoid model for longitudinal flight. According to this model, the airplane is considered as a point mass subjected to four forces (weight, lift, propulsive thrust and drag), being the direction of all the forces in the model, except weight, dependent on pitch. The discussion is also carried out by showing the trajectories of the aircraft in the phase space. The most relevant effects on the model aircraft flight caused by actions on the radio-controls are examined and explained in terms of aircraft parameter variation. From a pedagogical point of view, this kind of tool can be used to build up several inquiry-based proposals aimed at making students aware of the reasoning procedures to describe, formalise and explain the behaviour of some real systems as the airplanes.

We analyze and discuss the results of an experiment with the goal of revealing the phonon-like acoustic dispersion curve. The experimental apparatus consists of a sonometer and an electromagnetic driver connected to a signal generator in order to establish standing waves along a stretched metal string (a guitar string) upon which a set of beads (used normally for fishing) has been fixed. The oscillation amplitude is measured by means of a detector connected to an MBL interface. We detect the resonance frequencies as function of the wave-number and obtain the corresponding dispersion curve. The results show that deviations from linearity occur when the wavelength is comparable with the distance between two nearest beads. Measurements are repeated by varying bead mass and with different strings. Comparison with theoretical results is also performed. From a pedagogical point of view the experiment is very simple and allows to introduce some basic concepts in solid state physics as resonance, normal modes, dispersion and the effect of medium discreteness onto mechanical wave propagation. The modelling phase is also discussed by means of interactive simulations.

It has been extensively acknowledged by educational researchers and teacher educators that the main goal of science education is to make student aware that science is an important component of our cultural heritage, with the final purpose of forming the citizen. In order to realize this goal, school science teachers need to possess a basic knowledge of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) that gives an overall perception of the subject taught in its relationships with other fields and everyday life. In the present chapter, attention is given to the problem of HPS in physics teachers education, by designing a model of intervention aimed at deepening and widening the teachers’ disciplinary knowledge as well as at developing an adequate knowledge of Nature of Science (NOS). The role of rationality in its historical evolution and the fundamental role of the scientist interacting with his social and cultural milieu, are analyzed. Some viewpoints of twentieth century history and philosophy of science are contrasted with incorrect descriptions of NOS, often assumed as implicit epistemological basis in science-culture dialogue and widening the gap between humanities and hard science. The chapter details a specific setting for the development of an approach to the epistemology of physics, grounded in the history of modern science and focused on the development of some physics fundamental concepts. The approach is framed in the present literature and preliminary results of its implementation in a Course for a Graduate Program of pre-service Teachers Education at the University of Palermo (Italy) are reported.

New methods for high school and college Physics instruction engage students in understanding the physical world by constructing and using scientific models to describe, explain, predict and control physical phenomena. Modelling many particle systems involves the need to introduce statistical approaches and to look at reality in a probabilistic way. This paper reports a teaching approach in which the history of Physics is used as a Case Study in order to allow students to assimilate a given sequence of thought long enough to feel that it has a context and a surrounding logic of inquiry and experience. This approach focuses on Boltzmann’s conjectures and reasoning aimed at introducing his stochastic models in a mechanist era. The kind of conjectures chosen are described and the structure of our teaching approach is outlined. It will also involve the pedagogical tools prepared in order to make workable the approach even for students not familiar with combinatorial and permutational calculus. Preliminary results of the first pilot test in two Courses for teacher training are also described Novos métodos para o Ensino Médio e de Graduação levam os estudantes a compreender o mundo físico pela construção e pela utilização de modelos para descrever, explicar, prever e controlar os fenômenos físicos. Modelar um sistema de muitas partículas envolve a necessidade de introduzir aproximações estatísticas e olhar a realidade de uma forma probabilística. O presente artigo expõe um modelo de ensino em que a história da física é utilizada como um “estudo de caso”, no sentido de permitir aos alunos conviver com uma seqüência de pensamentos, num contexto e numa lógica de interrogação e experiência. Este modelo focaliza as conjecturas de Boltzmann e o seu raciocínio baseado em modelos estocásticos em uma era mecanicista. São descritos estes tipos de conjecturas escolhidos e a estrutura de nosso modelo aproximativo e ensino é posta junto com ferramentas didáticas preparadas no sentido de familiarizar os estudantes com o cálculo combinatorial e permutacional. São apresentados os resultados preliminares do primeiro teste-piloto em dois cursos de preparação de professores

We present a modelling environment based on the use of iconic representations consisting of elements, as containers and connected flows, able to describe the relationships between relevant variables of dynamic systems. The procedures involved are aimed to make students aware of the reasoning processes to describe, formalise and explain complex system behaviours. Moreover, we show how these strategies may allow the overcoming of some well-known difficulties involved in pupil understanding of mathematical formalisms, such as derivatives and differential equations and their real meaning. Our reported modelling examples were experimented on during some laboratory sessions of the Pre-Service School for Physics Teacher Education (S.S.I.S.) and validated in the trainee teachers' apprenticeship activities.

An international collaboration of physicists, affiliated with Multimedia Physics for Teaching and Learning (MPTL) and MERLOT, performed a survey and review of multimedia-based learning materials for quantum physics and quantum mechanics. The review process was based on more than a decade of experience with similar topical learning material reviews. A total of approximately 250 items were considered for review and eight were recommended by the reviewers. These are described in this report. Observations about quantum learning resources and multimedia tools are included. Postprint

Quantum mechanics holds a fascination for many students, but its mathematical complexity can present a major barrier. Traditional approaches to introductory quantum mechanics have been found to decrease student interest. Topics which enthuse students such as quantum information are often only covered in advanced courses. The QuVis Quantum Mechanics Visualization project (www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/quvis) aims to overcome these issues through the development and evaluation of interactive simulations with accompanying activities for the learning and teaching of quantum mechanics. Simulations support model-building by reducing complexity, focusing on fundamental ideas and making the invisible visible. They promote engaged exploration, sense-making and linking of multiple representations, and include high levels of interactivity and direct feedback. Some simulations allow students to collect data to see how quantum-mechanical quantities are determined experimentally. Through text explanations, simulations aim to be self-contained instructional tools. Simulations are research-based, and evaluation with students informs all stages of the development process. Simulations and activities are iteratively refined using individual student observation sessions, where students freely explore a simulation and then work on the associated activity, as well as in-class trials using student surveys, pre- and post-tests and student responses to activities. A recent collection of QuVis simulations is embedded in the UK Institute of Physics Quantum Physics website (quantumphysics.iop.org), which consists of freely available resources for an introductory course in quantum mechanics starting from two-level systems. This approach immediately immerses students in quantum phenomena that have no classical analogue, using simpler mathematical tools that allow a greater focus on conceptual understanding. It allows from the start a discussion of interpretative aspects of quantum mechanics and quantum information theory. This article gives an overview of the QuVis resource and describes the development and iterative refinement process based on student feedback. Postprint