United States

We report the design and development process undertaken by the authors in putting together historical vignettes that could be used as supplementary materials in teaching Physical Science in Senior High School. The use of historical physics vignettes humanizes science to the students and allows them to develop an understanding of the nature of science. In this paper, we present three examples of the historical vignettes that had been developed: (1) an interactive historical vignette about Galileo and his ast ronomical discoveries; (2) a vignette presented in role-play format that highlights the cont ributions of Oersted, Ampere, Faraday, and Maxwell; and (3) a comics-format vignette contextualized in the Philippines setting, featuring the story of the first female National Scientist of the Philippines. The vignettes featured guide questions that encourage the students to think about their views about the nature of science.

AAPT SM 21

Development of Historical Vignettes in Teaching Physical Science in SHS

physical science

senior high school

historical vignettes

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The Tennessee Technological University - STEM Majors for Rural Teaching (TTU - SMaRT) Noyce program has partnered closely with TTU's Millard Oakley STEM Center. IN this poster we describe how this mututally beneficial partnership has provided a low-stakes environment in which Noyce students gain authentic instrucitonal experiences, exposure to pedagogical innovations, menaingful interaction with practicing teachers, and early integrations with the local STEM teaching community. This partnership has also enabled the STEM Center to offer more outreach opportunities than it otherwise could. Lessons developed by scholars have contributed to a 'library' of standards-based activities that have also broadened the scope of what can be offered.

Affordances of a Noyce Program -STEM Center partnership

Understanding the basic concepts of electricity represents a major challenge to most students in K-12 education. Learners find it particularly difficult to develop a robust understanding of potential and potential difference and often believe that the electric current is “used up” by devices. A promising way of making circuits more accessible to students in introductory electricity lessons is offered by the use of analogies in combination with simulations. We therefore developed a new, analogy-based simulation of simple electric circuits. The simulation is intended for use in combination with the bike chain and the air pressure analogies, the implementation of which has been shown to support students’ development of a conceptual understanding of simple DC circuits. Teachers and students can access the 3D simulation free of charge using a modern browser.

An Analogy-Based 3D-Simulation for Teaching Simple Electric Circuits

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Implementation of a biomedically relevant active-learning Physics curriculum

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Exploring Physical Phenomena: A Physics Course for Prospective Teachers

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Beyond email: effective communication strategies to engage students of physics

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Implementation of a Full Year Introductory Physics Sequence Pre-Health Students

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Development of statics questions for the Fluids Conceptual Evaluation (FCE)

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Development of dynamics questions for the Fluids Conceptual Evaluation (FCE)

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Health/life Scenario Digital Worksheets with Student Choice of Details

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Development of Historical Vignettes in Teaching Physical Science in SHS

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