We report results from a study designed to identify links between undergraduate students' views about experimental physics and their engagement in multiweek projects in lab courses. Using surveys and interviews, we explored whether students perceived particular classroom activities to be features of experimental physics practice. We focused on 18 activities, including maintaining lab notebooks, fabricating parts, and asking others for help. Interviewees identified activities related to project execution as intrinsic to experimental physics practice based on high prevalence of those activities in interviewees' own projects. Fabrication-oriented activities were identified as conditional features of experimentation based on differences between projects, which interviewees attributed to variations in project resources. Interpersonal activities were also viewed as conditional features of experimentation, dependent upon one's status as novice or expert. Our findings suggest that students' views about experimental physics are shaped by firsthand experiences of their own projects and secondhand experiences of those of others.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has greatly impacted all forms of social activities globally, including traditional classroom activities across all levels of instruction (kindergarten to universities). While many countries have opted for suspension of lessons, this cannot continue indefinitely and alternative means to continue lessons must be developed. While online and blended learning (including MOOCs) have been an active subject of research and discourse during the pre-pandemic days, onset of the pandemic has suddenly created an immediacy to such means of course delivery, better …
We introduce two simple online activities to explore the physics of neutron stars. These provide an introduction to the basic properties of compact objects, like their masses and radii, for secondary school students. The first activity explores the idea of the minimum mass of a neutron star. It is directly linked to the concept of binding energy and follows on from our previous activities. The second activity focuses on the maximum mass of neutron stars using a solvable model of the neutron star interior. The activities are based on spreadsheets, provided as Supplementary Material, and can be …
The Adaptive Optics Summer School Laboratory Activities
自适应光学（AO）是一个新兴且迅速发展的仪器领域，但天文学家、视觉科学家和一般AO从业者对AO系统至关重要的根本技术基本上不熟悉。AO暑期学校（AOSS）由自适应光学中心主办，是一个为期一周的课程，培训研究生和博士后研究人员的基本理论，设计和使用AO系统。AOSS的参与者包括希望利用AO数据的天文学家，将使用AO仪器进行研究的视觉科学家，设计AO系统的光学师和工程师以及高带宽激光通信系统的用户。在这篇文章中，我们描述了新的AOSS实验室会议在2006-2009年实施的近250名学生。活动目标包括提高对AO技术的熟悉程度，加强光学对准技术和光学系统设计的知识，并鼓励使用AO系统作为研究工具探究视觉科学中的关键科学问题。活动分为三个站：视觉科学，傅立叶光学和AO演示。我们简要概述了这些活动，这些活动在这些会议记录的其他文章中得到了充分描述（Putnam et al.，Do等人，和Harrington等人，分别）。我们专注于这些活动的设计中遇到的独特挑战，包括类似调查的调查技术与复杂内容的结合，以及需要调整深度到研究生和博士水平的观众。根据2008年进行的前后调查，绝大多数参与者发现，所有活动对他们的职业生涯都很有价值，尽管与集成的功能性AO系统的直接经验特别有益。
Understanding Growth Mindset Practices in an Introductory Physical Computing Classroom: High School Students' Engagement with Debugging by Design Activities
Teaching physics in real-life contexts continues to be a challenge for teachers at different educational levels. In this article, three Context-Rich Problems are proposed to be implemented in the classroom for higher education, using the explosion that occurred in Beirut as a case study. These problems require the search and analysis of real data, integrating technologies as tools to learn physics. In particular, the analysis of images, videos, maps and audio recordings is suggested. The proposed activities are designed to promote active learning of classical mechanics subjects and the develop…
Since 2017 the Italian Space Agency (ASI) participates to so-called "Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro" (i.e., "school-work synergy") outreach projects promoted by the Italian government, and the ASI Space Science Data Center (SSDC) actively contributes to them, with the primary aim of bringing students closer to space-related activities before choosing their university studies. The SSDC outreach program is split into two parts: one theoretical, in which relevant topic are presented and explained, and one practical, consisting of hands-on activities aimed to replicate scientific analysis of real space …
Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this context, General Relativity (GR) occupies a prominent place, since it is related to astonishing scientific results, such as the first image of a black hole or the discovery of gravitational waves. In this paper we describe an educational proposal aimed at teaching GR in high school in a fun and playful way using the so-called rubber sheet analogy. We present a …
Recently, two technologies: video analysis and mobile device sensors have considerable impacted Physics teaching. However, in general, these techniques are usually used independently. Here, we focus on a less-explored feature: the possibility of using supplementary video analysis and smartphone (or other mobile devices) sensors. First, we review some experiments reported in the literature using both tools. Next, we present an experiment specially suited to compare both resources and discuss in detail some typical results. We found that, as a rule, video analysis provides distances or angular v…
Drawable electronics attract the attention of both educators and innovative circuit engineers due to their affordability and simplicity. This paper focuses on active learning activities related to conducting lines and presents extensible laboratory projects suitable for students of all levels -- from late primary school pupils to early undergraduate students. We build on ideas of Pouillet's law classroom demonstrations with pencil drawings on paper and continue with a line, circle and grid drawings and appropriate resistance measurements. These are used as methodological examples of drawable c…
We report on our ongoing efforts to develop, implement, and test VR activities for the introductory astronomy course and laboratory. Specifically, we developed immersive activities for two challenging "3D" concepts: Moon phases, and stellar parallax. For Moon phases, we built a simulation on the Universe Sandbox platform and developed a set of activities that included flying to different locations/viewpoints and moving the Moon by hand. This allowed the students to create and experience the phases and the eclipses from different vantage points, including seeing the phases of the Earth from the…
The open science framework defined in the German-Russian Astroparticle Data Life Cycle Initiative (GRADLCI) has triggered educational and outreach activities at the Irkutsk State University (ISU), which is actively participated in the two major astroparticle facilities in the region: TAIGA observatory and Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope. We describe the ideas grew out of this unique environment and propose a new open science laboratory based on education and outreach as well as on the development and testing new methods and techniques for the multimessenger astronomy.
