Table of contents

This journal contains 94 selected contributions of the GIREP-ICPE-EPEC-MPTL 2019 Conference held 1-5. July 2019 in Budapest Hungary in the premises of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

This conference coincided with the centenary year of Roland Eötvös to commemorate his achievements in physics. Also the UNESCO was associated with this celebration. Roland Eötvös (1848-1919) was a Hungarian physicist, who was not only an outstanding scientist-measuring the strict proportionality of the inertial and gravitational masses to a precision unprecedented before-, but was also an excellent educator and reformer of the Hungarian science education system.

More than 350 participants gathered from 47 countries all over the world to share their newest results on physics education research with their colleagues. There were 7 invited keynote talks (60 mins each), 10 symposia (90 mins)-containing altogether 39 oral presentations-, 11 workshops (90 mins each), 173 oral presentations (15 mins +5 mins discussion) and 76 posters.

The main international scientific bodies organizing the conference were the following:

• Group International de Recherche sur l'Enseignement de la Physique (GIREP)

• Physics Education Division (PED) of the European Physical Society (EPS)

• International Commission on Physics Education (ICPE) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)

• Multimedia Physics Teaching and Learning (MPTL).

The leading organizing body was GIREP, which is an international membership organisation founded in 1966, open to academics, teachers, curriculum developers and all other stakeholders with the concern to improve physics teaching and learning by means of Physics Education Research, Innovative Experimentation in Physics Teaching/Learning, Innovative Materials and Methods, Suggestions for Stakeholders, International Cooperation in Conferences, Seminars, Selected Paper Books.

The key topics of the Conference were the following:

A. Strategies and methods to improve Physics learning and teaching

B. Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning

C. Contemporary Physics and Modern Physics in School

D. Physics Curriculum: Development and Implementation

E. Experiments in Physics Education

F. Early Science Learning

G. Environmental Physics

H. Teacher Education and postgraduate education

I. Informal learning and science centres

J. Outreach of Physics

There are several papers in this journal about most of the topics above. The papers were subject of double blinded reviewing process, and only those got accepted, which have met the high standards set by the referees.

During the Conference also Symposia were organized where groups of researchers working on the same fields shared their results and discussed the actual problems of the field. Also reports of some of those symposia are published here in the Journal.

In addition to these interesting topics GIREP also launched a new initiative during the Conference: The Community on Teaching/Learning Quantum Physics. This explains why the readers find here especially large number of papers about this very hot topic.

We also draw the attention of the interested reader that some selected papers will be published soon in Springer book series "Challenges in Physics Education" under the title: "Teaching-Learning Contemporary Physics – from Research to Practice".

We, as main local organizers of the Conference, would like to express our thanks to the many organizations who contributed and helped organizing this Conference. Firstly, the international organizations mentioned above, who not only assured the high scientific standards, but also contributed financially. We are also indebted to the Budapest University of Technology and Economics who provided its nice premises and infrastructure and welcomed all lectures, workshops and meetings. We express our thanks also to the Hungarian Education State Secretary for the financial help and continuous encouragement. Last, but not least our thanks goes to the many institutions-in the country or abroad-who offered some sponsorship which enabled us to keep the finances of the conference under control, and to keep the participation fees at an acceptable height.

Budapest, 20. April 2021.

Beata Jarosievitz and Csaba Sükösd editors

Contacts:

Prof. Beata Jarosievitz, Dennis Gabor College Budapest e-mail: jarosievitz@gmail.com

Prof. Csaba Sükösd, Budapest Univ. of Technology and Economics e-mail: sukosd@reak.bme.hu

All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

• Type of peer review: Double-blind

• Conference submission management system: http://girep2019/manage

• Number of submissions received: 133

• Number of submissions sent for review: 126

• Number of submissions accepted: 94

• Acceptance Rate (Number of Submissions Accepted / Number of Submissions Received X 100): 70,7%

• Average number of reviews per paper: 2.35

• Total number of reviewers involved: 67

• Any additional info on review process: none

• Contact person for queries:

Name : Prof. Dr. Csaba SÜKÖSD

Affiliation: Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Email : e-mail: sukosd@reak.bme.hu

A symposium organized by the GTG PERU-Physics education Research at University

In this article we present a summary of initiatives that have been undertaken by a subset of the European Physics Education community to try to help students develop conceptual understanding. The contributions to this article represent a broad spectrum of ideas and research strategies that range from innovative teaching methods, to empirical applied psychology studies. Future physics professionals: scientists, teachers, engineers, analysts etc. are a diverse set of people and therefore the methods used to help them improve their understanding should be wide ranging. However, common themes emerge that we suggest as teaching implications namely: that more attention should be paid to how we develop students' ability to reason; how building self-confidence can be hugely beneficial to closing knowledge gaps and how the split-attention effect acts to limit students' working memory.

This symposium proposed by the Latin American Physics Education Network (LAPEN) is devoted to show some results on Physics Education research for high school and university level carried out in the Latin-American region. We focus in the Active Learning of Physics methodologies. There are three contributions from Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico: The topics studied are: (1) The teaching of Special Relativity Theory with Peer Instruction, developed in the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (2) Active Learning of Electromagnetism for engineering students, developed in the University Antonio Nariño in Bogota, Colombia. (3) Rasch Analysis and Active Learning of electrical circuits for high school students, developed at the COBAY school Xoclán Plantel, in Mérida Yucatán in the south of Mexico The Active Learning methodologies are important because there are good results in the literature about their implementation in different educational levels. Besides, it is a way to innovate the physics class, unfortunately in the Latin America region their effectiveness has been little studied. This brief report sheds more light on the matter.

The sequence of representations used to introduce new knowledge and the context in which this is done is critical to both effectively build on prior knowledge and establish conceptual coherence in physics. Ongoing reports indicate that current teaching activities fail address student difficulties to obtain conceptual understanding and-coherence between relevant physics representations and concepts. There is a need for fine-grained topic specific multiple representational teaching activities to enhance coherence in physics knowledge. In this paper we present a teaching activity for undergraduate physics, built on using motion diagrams to specifically relate the concepts and representations in kinematics, in particular for the concept of free fall. The teaching activity follows a conceptual qualitative approach to teaching kinematics concepts and is informed by the results of a broader Design Based Research study. In the teaching activity the concept of acceleration is introduced qualitatively as the net force to mass ratio followed by drawing motion diagrams to visualize the motion of the objects in free fall. The motion diagrams are implemented to support conceptual qualitative interpretation of mathematical representations such as graphs and equations, to enhance transfer of knowledge between representations and coherence between relevant concepts and representations. The contribution of this research lies in presenting an argument for a conceptual qualitative approach to teaching introductory mechanics and introducing a teaching activity based on the value offered of including motion diagrams in the teaching activity to enhance coherence between physics representations and between physics concepts.

This paper presents a detailed study of inconsistent thinking by entry-level students on a troublesome question on the Force Concept Inventory. Two cohorts of students separated by three years were asked a series of questions after completing the Force Concept Inventory. The questions were aimed at eliciting their background knowledge of Newton's laws of motion along with their approach to question 26. For example, were they guessing, eliminating some impossibilities, reasoning the answer, etc. There was no common or even predominant approach and considerable evidence of inconsistent thinking. The results are discussed in the light of recent literature on the nature of thinking and in particular the debate over logical reasoning versus reasoning by mental models. It is argued that the mental-models perspective explains many aspects of the data and moreover is more conducive to teaching approaches than the misconceptions perspective.

Misconceptions are beliefs that contradict accepted scientific knowledge but they are seemingly supported by common-sense arguments. By testing misconceptions, we have deduced that they are also related to the structure of knowledge. Some basic elements of the incomplete knowledge structure have been identified, which promote the root of misconceptions to be persistent. Based on recognizing and eliminating these shortcomings, distinct guidance for the prevention or overcoming of misconceptions is proposed.

The concept of students' conceptions is central in science education and research. However, a concise and accurate definition of the German term 'Schülervorstellungen' (engl. students' conceptions) is still absent. Therefore, a Delphi study, inviting more than 200 professors and postdoctoral researchers in the field of German-speaking physics education research (PER), was conducted. Main purpose was to find opinions about the necessity for a general definition and if possible, definitions used implicitly in the scientific community of PER. First results indicate a need for a concise definition, especially for its use in physics teacher education. Based on our results, a broader discussion among other subject educational research communities dealing with this term is necessary.

Interference, diffraction, and polarisation of light are the basic phenomena of wave optics. According to the findings of previous studies on wave optics, these phenomena are the source of many students' conceptual difficulties. The goal of the present study was to qualitatively investigate and compare Croatian and Austrian secondary school students' understanding of the main concepts and phenomena of wave optics as a first step that will serve as a preparation for a large-scale study on secondary school students understanding of wave optics. Here we present the preliminary results of six semi-structured demonstration interviews conducted in Croatia and Austria with secondary school students (age 18-19), after regular school instruction on wave optics.

Previous studies have shown that students have difficulties in understanding some concepts related to circular motion of particles. However, there are few studies on rigid body rotational dynamics. In this study, we have studied difficulties that Upper secondary school students have about the rotation of a rigid body. We have designed an 8 questions open-ended questionnaire. In designing the questions, we took into account the key concepts that students have to know in order to understand the rotation of rigid body in a proper way. We conducted a study with 85 Upper secondary school students after their Mechanics course and the analysis has been performed using phenomenography, which is focused on the explanations rather than in the correctness of the answers. The results suggest that students have several difficulties in understanding some concepts of rigid body rotation and that there are significant alternative ideas among them.

As a method to shorten the test time of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) is suggested. CAT is a test administered on a computer, where items (i.e. questions) are selected based on the responses of examinees to prior items. As a step of the development, we conducted analyses to find an optimal way for the administration of CAT with the FCI. Specifically, since CAT is based on Item Response Theory (IRT), we examined which IRT model is the most preferable. Using 2812 responses of the FCI of Japanese students, we estimated the item parameters of the One-, Two-, Three-, and Four-parameter logistic model of IRT and then we evaluated the statistics for the goodness of fit and for model selection. Based on the analysis, we suggest that the Two-parameter logistic model is the most preferable for the administration of CAT with the FCI.

The last EU recommendations on key competences for lifelong learning encourage educational institutions to strengthen the collaboration between Physics researchers and Secondary School teachers to implement competence-oriented education, training and learning. Our group has carried out a collaboration project with a group of high school physics teachers engaged in a PLS (Progetto Lauree Scientifiche) professional development course promoted by the Department of Science and High Technology (DiSAT – Dipartimento Scienze e Alta Tecnologia) of Insubria University in Como, Italy. The aim of the course was to enable teachers to create balanced and effective learning activities to be used in class to reinforce the scientific competencies and skills required in the Final Exam of the Italian Secondary School (Esame di Stato) and in the entire physics curriculum. This paper presents the result of this collaboration to understand how to better support the collaboration between Physics researchers and High School teachers in order to design teaching and learning materials that can be effectively integrated in the daily classroom activities, focusing the attention on problem solving and data interpretation skills, as requested by the last education reform for Italian Secondary School Final Exam.

The perception of our surroundings is determined by vision to a large extent. Human vision is not only able to generate a three-dimensional impression of three-dimensional objects, but also of two-dimensional objects. Nowadays, 3D-technologies even provide additional opportunities to trigger visual 3D-perception. 3D-vision provides a context for teaching and learning several topics in physics. In order to develop a learning environment for high school students, following the framework of educational reconstruction, students' perspectives must be considered. As we could not find any documented students' conceptions on 3D-vision, an exploratory study was conducted. Main aim of this study was to provide a broad overview on students' perspectives on 3D-vision. Therefore, the questionnaire mainly consisted of open questions. The questionnaire was administered to Austrian secondary level students of two schools and was finally filled in completely by 215 students. Data was analysed by the means of qualitative content analysis and an inductive category system was developed. The results show that students mainly connect 3D-vision with 3D-technologies in cinemas. However, differences between junior and senior high school students were detected. While junior high school students mainly associate 3D-vision with cinemas, senior high school students additionally mention the physiological process of 3D-vision as well as 3D-technology.

We propose interdisciplinary teaching-learning sequences focusing on colours. How do we perceive colours? How do animals perceive it? How do some animals make unusual coloured liveries? The proposal was initially tested with high school students in a summer school, then it was discussed in a summer school for science teachers in order to enhance the interdisciplinary aspects. Finally, it was proposed and discussed in a training event for in-service science teachers. Involvement and motivation in the learning process were the main reactions expected and the forecasts were fully achieved.

Studyng images in physics textbooks is important because illustrations are considered relevant to understand physics contents. In fact, images have a fundamental role in textbooks, and facilitate students to enhance physics theory visualization. Silva & Martins (2008) assume that images carry information that can be classified as having a motivating, informative, explanatory or redundant function. We found 223 images in the kinematics units' analysis of three collections recommended by the last edition of the Brazilian Textbook Program (PNLD 2018). The images were classified according to their function, observing, in percentages, that 52% of images have an informative function, 40% an explanatory function, while the redundant and motivating functions total less than 9%. Moving interactive images have been created from informative function figures using the Illustrator software. This program allows us to create an illusion of movement in the image when moving a page with vertical lines, facilitating the student's visualization and understanding. These images were presented to the students through a questionnaire. We verified a better performance in their answers with the interactive images, that allows us to infer that moving images can facilitate students' learning.

Newtonian gravity can be regarded as a hypothetic-deductive system where the inverse square law is the starting point from which gravitational phenomena are deduced. This operational form of presenting gravity endorses problem solving and seems to be predominant in the teaching practice. In contrast, regarding phenomena as a source for the development of the theory is also possible, of course, and can be advantageous to scientific education since it deals with model conception and construction. This article intends to introduce undergraduates to Newtonian gravity using its empirical basis, i.e. the free fall and the planetary motion, to deduce the universal law of gravitation. It also steps into the modern interpretation of gravitational phenomena i.e. Einstein's general relativity, including a discussion on the instantaneous action at a distance in this context. This didactic presentation of the Newtonian theory of gravity is designed to reach a threefold equality, similar to those applied in the method of separation of variables in partial differential equations, where G is treated as a separation constant. By doing so, the universality of the gravitation constant emerges as a conclusion rather than a statement. A few historical remarks on the development of this topic are also highlighted.

The opportunity to use a new scientific discovery in physics lessons is presented in order to illustrate how they can be interpreted in the course of public education. Students were asked to estimate the mass of a red dwarf star using the data regarding its planets published in a news article, and through the use of the learned laws of physics. The aim was to develop the students' knowledge of mechanics, to expand the elements of the Newtonian approach, to deepen their astronomical knowledge and to practice research methods. This new approach was tested in two classes, and the results were the basis of the thesis of a graduate teacher. The problem was also solved by 70 college freshmen as a test of their physics skills acquired in general education.

Physics undergraduate students researched the interaction between magnets during an elastic collision of two gliders on an air track. The objective of this research was to achieve students to discover the dynamics of an elastic collision before, during and after the time in which repulsive magnetic forces acted over two gliders on an air track. For several years it has been introduced, in our course of mechanical laboratory, a discovery cycle which is followed by students and has helped them to develop or improve their scientific skills of reasoning. The students began their investigations with an experiment to find the relation between the repulsion magnetic force with the distance of separation between magnets. Then, they videotaped and analyzed the experiment of collisions between magnets attached to gliders on an air track and modeled numerically the forces of interaction during the collision using the relation between the magnetic force with the distance founded previously. At last, they successfully compared the numerical model with the experiment. Here it is reported, how students carried out the experiment of magnetic collisions and its theoretical and numerical modelling and, how they get a better understanding of the concepts, laws, and principles of physics that are immersed in real collisions in the laboratory by the application of the discovery cycle.

To create an opportunity for students to re-elaborate their knowledge and offering them a working experience, 145 16-17 years old students from 6 classes from a Scientific Lyceum were involved in a research activity with responsibility in specific tasks involving conceptual learning of pulses and mechanical waves. Experiments by means of classical apparatus and mobile APPs were planned and performed by students themselves aiming at individuating the best way to prepare educational materials for peers. In this framework three different educational proposals were proposed to three different groups of students allowing them to point out weaknesses and strengths of the various approaches. The educational path aimed at clarifying the difference between phase and group velocity.

Based on years of teaching, our team aims to elaborate a modern experimental manual with a modular structure meant to entwine the features of a traditional book on paper support with the advantages of an e-book. The chapter on the Wave Theory has been written as a start-up. In our vision, the core material of the manual is targeting those high-school students who do not wish to study Physics on a higher level, meanwhile the extensions to the lessons (such as the simulations, high-level extra information and any other attractive topics etc.) are for the students who are interested in Physics and who are thus given the possibility of a more profound study. The traditional manual would be designed to cover the core material, and the extensions would be made accessible via smartphones, as well as the QR-codes placed in the lessons. The webpage that has been added to the online version includes the written lessons, the extensions being placed into so-called boxes. Approach to the chapter largely differs from any previous approaches as the wave types are presented along with the description of the related wave phenomena. Practicality and efficiency testing of the webpage is ongoing in a rather close circle via questionnaires and a multiple choice test, the manual to be continuously improved and amended subsequent to the feedback we receive and according to our own teaching experiences..

In this paper we will describe didactic elements in the Horizon 2020 project FCHgo. This project is directed at children and adolescents between 8 and 18 years old. Its ultimate goal is to raise awareness for renewable energy sources, in particular hydrogen as a fuel and fuel cells for electric power. As part of the project, we are developing a toolkit for teachers and pupils, based upon a narrative approach to physical science and engineering. We believe the narrative approach to be best suited for this project because it allows us to take into account the cognitive tools available to pupils at various stages of their development.

The historical development of the concept of energy can be brought back to the early studies of heat, suggesting that a unified treatment of heat, temperature and energy can be a possible route for teaching these complex subjects altogether. Here we present an experiment-based module centered on heat and temperature and on their relation with energy which was proposed to a class of prospective primary school teachers. The intervention redesigns a previously developed approach to include the concept of energy and use of infrared cameras. Learning outcomes are investigated through pre- / post-assessment questions, worksheets and final interviews.

In our contribution, we focus on the analysis of six FCI tasks which were solved by first-year university students. The analysis is conducted using eye-tracking data obtained from the experiment. Some characteristics, like attention maps and sequences of fixations provide a deeper insight into the students' approaches to the tasks verifying their conceptual understanding to Newtonian mechanics. We can confirm that the students answering correctly were able to find the solution more straightforwardly, making their decision between fewer options. This is also supported by the analysis of fixation numbers and fixation times. The results show differences in the way novices and experts process questions. Moreover, it enables to identify some persistent misconceptions.

The purpose of the article is to describe some of the changes in the nature and the function of the integrated methods in physics education for the establishment of scientific literacy. In the article is presented a good practice in the organization and the realization of a lesson-"The phenomenon diffusion", with 16 years old Bulgarian students. We conducted a physical lesson implementing integrated methods with biology and chemistry knowledge. The lesson also uses interactive methods combined with ICT, which is a good prerequisite for the formation of basic key competences and natural-science literacy.

Experimental work is very useful for motivating high school students towards science, leverage learning and also for developing procedural skills. Teachers usually provide their students with protocols of the experiments and expect to obtain good results from this practice, but students must be prepared before going to the lab in order to successfully accomplish the experimental work. The project VLAB-FIS is based on introductory videos that give a holistic view of the experimental works, facilitating a prior understanding of the experiments and their corresponding conceptual goals. The approach is complemented by video recordings of the experiments and computational simulations, for an inclusive participation of all students regardless of reading or physical disabilities. The project was presented to physics teachers in a workshop to better understand the feasibility of the project in Portuguese secondary schools from the teachers' viewpoint. Teachers' feedback shows that they consider the project useful as support for the preparation of laboratory classes.

It has now been established that the modern educational process is becoming more effective when using interactive, multimedia-rich educational resources that provide active teaching methods. The best way to meet these requirements are educational resources and virtual reality systems. An example of such electronic resources is virtual laboratory work, which can simulate the behavior of real-world objects in a computer-based educational environment and help students learn new knowledge and skills. This is relevant and already mandatory in the study of scientific and natural disciplines, such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science and their combinations. Virtual laboratories contribute to increasing visibility, interactivity, as well as the formation of students' cognitive and creative activity. In this regard, the development of a virtual model of a physical experiment on laboratory equipment that has a real analogue was the goal of this work. The paper presents data on the creation of the experimental setup interface developed in the laboratory of a pulsed plasma accelerator of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, called the vacuum-arc accelerator (hereinafter VAA-1). At this installation, experiments are carried out to obtain coatings from various materials on a metal base from structural materials in order to create a protective and multifunctional layer on its surface.

This work presents the electricity topic from a Physics course for Biological and Health Science students in High School. These students believe that Physics is not relevant to their future career or professional life. They consider themselves incapable of succeeding in the subject unless they learn by heart a lot of mathematical formulas and use them in the exam. In this way, we exposed the relation between Physics and Biological and Health Science, showing them the Electricity involved in biological phenomena. It has been observed how student's attitudes change depending on the examples and contexts used in class.

The physical space surrounding us is not empty, it is filled by objects and fields. Macroscopic objects are visible, but fields can only be detected with sensitive instruments rather than the naked eye. Physicists introduced visual clues (field lines, trajectories, streamlines, equipotential surfaces) based on helpful mathematical concepts to characterize (the mostly invisible) physical fields. These illustrations are used in high school-level physics, but – due to their abstract nature – are not easily understood by students. Most of the confusion is caused by students mistaking the plotted auxiliary concepts for physical reality. We can help their understanding by drawing parallels between the visual representation of fields and the technical methods used by a painter to express the subject.

As a natural science, physics seeks to answer questions that arise in the world around us. One of the areas of motivation is to show students that a number of devices and treatments used in the beauty industry or for staying healthy apply the laws and phenomena of physics. Examining the physical background of various, modern treatments can be used to raise simple and complicated issues in physics and also provides us the opportunity to carry out qualitative or quantitative experiments. We believe that these projects assist students in a better understanding of physics and also encourage teachers to make the subject more interesting.

As part of a national IT Academy project, our goal is to increase pupils' interest in studying Informatics and STEM subjects in general. We consider the changes in education focused on targeted use of the IBSE approach to be key. We monitor the development of pupils' skills and the degree of conceptual understanding of key concepts and phenomena. To introduce the necessary innovations in every STEM subject, a team of experts has proposed 60 innovative lessons (methodologies), for each subject. The methodologies were piloted and evaluated by experienced teachers, modified and re-entered in the verification. Teachers have the opportunity to participate in continuous education, where they gain experience with inquiry teaching approach, formative assessment and strategies for developing pupils' skills. One of the key conditions for teachers to begin to trust in innovation is to gain confidence in their importance and benefits. In order to motivate teachers, we used initial measurements of selected skills of pupils. Our goal is to prove the necessity of systematic monitoring and targeted development of skills through the offered educational activities. Within the national project IT academy, a multiple choice test has been developed to assess skills to making predictions and following directions. The tasks are inspired by the real life situations pupils either have experienced before or it is possible they will experience. The test items have a form of an on-line assignment. The pre testing was conducted at the lower secondary schools joined into national project. Pre-test results are made available to schools to respond by introducing innovative methodologies into their school curricula. In the paper we present selected results of the entrance skills test, analysis of questions focused on the development of individual skill levels and comparison of results depending on the school year of pupils.

Development of inquiry skills is still in the main focus of science educators in Slovakia. Large effort has been recently put into the implementation of inquiry-based science education. In this research, the current level of development of selected inquiry skills has been monitored and analysed. For this purpose, a multiple-choice test of selected inquiry skills was designed. The tested skills involve formulating hypothesis, designing experiment, transforming results into tables and graphs, determining relationships between variables based on tables and graphs and identifying possible sources of errors. The test was implemented across several thousands of upper secondary school students. The inquiry skills´ test results revealed significant lack of their development. The paper describes the test design as well as it analyses and interpret the test results.

The purpose of the report is to examine and justify the feasibility of practice-oriented teaching of physics in the training of engineers. A training model (at the level of physics), including such structural components as a model of a specialist's activity, a model of practice-oriented learning, a structural model of cognitive activity and independence, the technology of their formation, the result of preparation lies in our research. This model is being tested at Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications for bachelors studying in telecommunications and energy.

We study the evolution of the explanations made by a group of pre-service physics teachers when experiencing with two different electrostatic phenomena: the Faraday Cage Effect and the Pointed Conductor Effect. By using a teaching and learning sequence (TLS) to help students improve their understanding about these two electrostatic effects, we find that these explanations improve when teachers are able to combine correctly the electric-field model with the charge-distribution model.

The paper presents and discusses selected results of national diagnosis of teaching science subjects – physics, biology, chemistry and geography in Poland. The research was carried out at the beginning of the 2017/2018 school year and was the next instalment of research initiated in 2011 by Educational Research Institute (IBE) in Warsaw [1]. Authors elaborate data as a collection of comprehensive results enabling the improvement of science teaching and learning, supporting the creation of legal regulations in the area of education, improving the formula of external examinations as well as teacher education. The discussed data are presented with a special focus on results connected to physics education.

This study examines students' interest in physics within the culture and context of the Irish education system, at both lower and upper second level. In Ireland, the majority of students (aged 12-15 years) complete an integrated science curriculum at lower second level that encompasses learning outcomes across the disciplines of physics, chemistry, biology and earth and space. Students can choose what subjects they continue with at senior cycle and typically, 13-14% of students (aged 15-18 years) continue to study physics. This study reports on the student's interest in physics and presents collated responses from 563 lower second level science students and 142 upper second level physics students. The findings of this study denote the differences between males and females interests in studying Physics at each level and in particular, highlight the effect that school type has on females' interest in physics.

On the assumption that any successful change on the curriculum is largely dependent on teachers being positive about it, we assessed and compared among 134 physics high school teachers' attitudes towards general relativity assimilation in the curriculum by an online questionnaire, 71 from Israel and 63 from Hungary. We assessed and compared five issues related to pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge: degree of past and current GR knowledge, expectations of obstacles in implementing GR in the classroom, degree of importance teaching GR as mandatory, degree of importance teaching GR as internal elective and coping with mathematics difficulty. The results showed that teachers in both countries think that teaching general relativity in high school, has obstacles like lack of time and content knowledge. However, the high level of general relativity mathematics is not an obstacle in teaching general relativity.

Journals, intended for teachers, provide practical ideas about the use of multimedia in physics teaching and learning. However, the articles in such journals are usually written in local languages. Here, ten researchers in physics education from different countries provide a review of articles on multimedia applications and corresponding concepts that are discussed in country-specific languages (excluding English). A total of 491 articles about multimedia applications were analysed, using a list of 81 categories. Central topics included teaching strategies, technologies, and multimedia features. Furthermore, differences between countries, changes over time, and notable patterns of articles in 34 teacher-oriented journals from 10 countries are presented.

Current literature offers a broad range of ideas related to the practical use of multimedia. Topics of focus differ between countries and languages, suggesting more international exchange to circulate the best ideas of concrete teaching material for schools across Europe. Furthermore, our findings also suggest a need for improvement in the dissemination of current research findings, as well as a solid theoretical grounding among those who write articles for teacher-oriented journals in local languages.

This article collects and summarizes findings that may be relevant for the international group of scientists and for possible future collaborations.

Active learning and discovery-based laboratory curricula for the understanding of kinematics using motion sensors have extensively been studied in Physics Education Research for more than thirty years and provided strong evidence of their usefulness in terms of students learning and retention. More recently, activities based on video analysis software have also been developed and have become an important part of Physics Education Research. In this work we present a setup based on Virtual Reality (VR) headsets that may be used both for activities that are currently based on motion sensors and also for motion tracking. Our setup is based also on cameras that can be attached to the headsets in order to achieve an Augmented Reality experience. While VR headsets are mainly sold as gaming devices, they can be very interesting for Physics Education active learning activities: we called such an activity an Augmented Reality Active Learning (AnReAL) activity. As it will be shown, many curricula based on motion sensors or on video tracking can almost automatically be translated into AnReAL ones, while also being open for many new opportunities. In fact, following the emerging theory of Embodied Cognition, Virtual and Augmented Reality setups such as the presented one could prove to be very beneficial for information retention.

The following article presents the results of a seminar on "Augmented Reality in Institutional Education". There, together with STEM trainee teachers, an optics experimentation circle was developed for pupils in the 7th and 8th grade at the Gymnasium for the subject of "Nature & Technology" or "Physics". This includes (real) experiments (lunar phases / eclipses, refraction, refractive error, color mixing), which were enriched with Augmented Reality technology created by the students. By creating a learning scenario with the help of Augmented Reality at school, the real environment continues to be perceived by the students but is supplemented with visualizations of physical model concepts. For example, the refraction of laser light on a water surface in the real experiment was overlaid with a visualization of the physical ray model of light, so that both information can be perceived simultaneously. This offers the students the opportunity to link physical model concepts statically but also in their spatial or temporal change in conjunction with the real experiment and to actively interact with it at the same time. Even without linking to a real object, augmented reality makes it possible to visualize changing processes or three-dimensional movements of virtual objects and to integrate holograms into the real world. We hope that the experiments presented here can demonstrate the benefits of AR extensions to real experiments, so that more applications will find their way into STEM lessons in the future.

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 variables, while sensors supplies velocity or acceleration (either linear or angular). The numerical differentiation of higher derivatives, i.e. acceleration, usually implies noisier results while the opposite process (the numerical integration of a temporal evolution) gives rise to the accumulation of errors. In a classroom situation, the comparison between these two techniques offers an opportunity to discuss not only concepts related to the specific experiment but also with the experimental and numerical aspects including their pros and cons.

Smartphone is a powerful internet connected computer packed with internal sensors that measure sound, light, acceleration and magnetic field strength. Physics teachers can use them as measurement devices to demonstrate science concepts and promote the joy of learning. Some research has also shown the benefits of using smartphones for teaching and learning physics. This article aims to extend mobile phone research with our open source apps and low-cost experimental design. The three experiments that we designed include radioactivity, line spectrum, standing sound wave and polarization of light. Students are able to conduct experiments and collect data easily without using bulky data loggers or laptops. Substituting a data logger with a smartphone will mean that every student can possess his/her own measuring tool inside and outside the classroom, instead of having to share with a large group of students in a scheduled lab. By empowering the students to conduct their own experiments and collect data, the use of the smartphone as a tool aims to support student learning anytime and anywhere, igniting greater joy of learning.

How students plan and conduct experimental inquiry has been a major focus in science education research. However, experimental inquiry is not representative for all scientific investigations. So, a focus on experimental inquiry can cause the impression that there is a "single scientific method". We are currently developing learning environments that focus on another type of inquiry using environmental data from an online data repository. We call this scientific investigation by data exploration. Due to the increased variability in environmental data, ideas of inferential statistics are of extreme importance because causal relationships cannot be directly derived. Hence, the focus of our learning environment is to support students' skills which are relevant for performing scientific investigations by data exploration. The main goal during the intervention for the students is to identify factors influencing the particulate matter concentration in an Austrian city. In this article, we report the evaluation of our intervention with a cohort of 27 secondary school students. The evaluation shows that students regard particulate matter as a highly interesting. Furthermore, students self-report a high intrinsic motivation during the intervention and feel more informed about the environmental issue of particulate matter after the intervention. However, a few starting points for further improvement of the learning environment were identified and are discussed in this article.

The aim of this study is to introduce some effective methods of integrating educational web 2.0 apps into Physics lessons, to share some experience and ideas how they can be used to support learning and make students more active in the learning process. This collection of apps focuses on the most popular activities of the students (using social media, playing online games etc.) A short insight will be given into the procedure how these modern techniques can foster the students' creativity, develop their collaboration skills, give opportunity to deal with differentiated learning problems and, last but not least, change the students' attitude towards learning Physics.

The most important concept in dynamics is force. Teaching forces in secondary schools has many difficulties, due to the fact that when students start learning dynamics, they have already developed a force concept based on their everyday experiences. This concept is usually simplified and often confused with impulse. However, the concept taught on physics lessons, is a much more complex, based on a vectorial quantity, with a time-dependent direction and magnitude. This confusion of concepts can be largely eliminated by the visualization of force vectors during the motion of an object. This opportunity is available in motion-simulation software, which work as a digital sandbox, allowing users to create their own scenes and display force vectors during the simulations. Connecting kinematics by motion visualization and dynamics by force visualization is a powerful tool that helps students to develop deeper understanding in mechanics. In our educational research, we investigated the positive effect of using such a program. With the participation of 700 students, divided into experimental and reference groups, we measured their development in understanding mechanics. The results proved that students who used the simulation program reach a better functional understanding of the concept of force than those being in the reference group.

The course offers a compact presentation of the basic content of classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, interaction and chaos theory. In 26 MATLAB Live scripts, the basic physical laws are presented, and examples are solved. Since it is assumed that the reader already has basic knowledge of physics and mathematics, a more modern view of physics, mathematics and calculation can be chosen. The dynamic laws, uniform throughout the course, stem from the concepts of invariance and continuity. Throughout the course, ground vectors and metric are used instead of basis vectors. The use of symbolic computer software enables more complicated problems, vivid graphics, and lots of animation. Students like it because they are play-like. Even students who major in mathematics, computer science and similar subjects have gained a good understanding of the basic physical principles.

The present paper summarizes the building of the GIREP community on teaching and learning quantum physics in secondary school and the results of the community's first discussion workshop. The questions for the workshop were prepared using feedback from the community members. The participants to the Working Discussion in Budapest Conference were divided in five groups, each focusing on distinct approaches in teaching quantum physics, as identified by the community. The five groups discussed the questions and identified core concepts that any course on quantum physics should cover. They also identified some specificities of each approach and discussed which approaches are particularly well suited or poorly suited to address specific concepts. The paper describes the creation of the community, the process of selecting the questions for the workshop and the results of the discussion on specific questions. The group identified potential research questions that should be addressed with future research. The results are summarized into a short position statement on the future goals of the community.

Quantum physics (QP) changed our worldview, it brought us modern electronic devices, and its almost mythical image fascinates. Although QP is relatively new in secondary education, it is now part of the national curricula of many countries. To understand the current state of QP content in high schools, we scrutinised upper secondary school physics curriculum documents in 15 countries. In these countries, we identified a similar core curriculum of QP which contains the following seven main categories: discrete atomic energy levels, interactions between light and matter, wave-particle duality, de Broglie wavelength, technical applications, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and the probabilistic nature of QP. We also found differences in the focus of the listed topics of individual countries, which indicate different views on teaching QP. The thematic focus of QP items is related to the underlying goal of science education and to the way students' knowledge is tested. This overview shows which QP content is generally feasible at a secondary level and which pedagogical perspectives are possible. Therefore this study might lead to reflections on existing QP curricula, and inspire countries that do not have QP in their curriculum yet.

Most current educational presentations of quantum physics still propose the same difficulties that emerged in the early twentieth century, often as a mean to engage students. Those difficulties emerged among physicists mostly because the lack of a suitable meaning of what "reality" has to be considered. Instead of engaging students, those difficulties leave them confused because they lack the awareness of what a physical theory is and its relationship with the experiments. We will discuss this problem, both from the epistemological and the educational point of view and give indications to provide an increasingly solid foundation for the educational reconstructions of quantum physics starting from classical physics that must be reconsidered in view of the final objective rather than opposing it to modern physics.

Moving from the research tradition on the use of Feynman's sum over paths approach in education, we have developed an educational reconstruction of elementary quantum physics which uses Feynman paths at fixed energy and is capable of a simple conceptual explanation of discrete energy levels in bound systems. The reconstruction has been found to offer several educational advantages, may help students think of quantum physics in a way more akin to how the subject is used by scientists, and allows to shed light on the relationship between energy and time.

In our teaching approach to quantum mechanics for high schools, we combined a two-state system approach with a matter-wave approach. We developed a simulation of a double well, which has been gradually improved with experience to include all the functionality needed to address the most important concepts of quantum physics. A complementary simulation of a double slit has also been developed to address the introduction of the wave function. A course, based on these simulations has been developed and is currently being tested for the fourth year, still undergoing improvements. Each year a series of formative questions and a pre- and post-test has been administered. We report here how the simulation is used to address the concepts of quantum physics and some preliminary results from the ongoing study of the course.

In the past there has been great faith in the power of laboratory activities and teacher demonstrations to enhance the learning of physics concepts. However, reviews of the effectiveness turned out to be disappointing [1-3] and have shown that lab activities and demonstrations need to be carefully designed and embedded in lessons to realize cognitive benefits [4]. Nevertheless, for secondary school quantum physics we developed a portable double slit demonstration mounted in a suitcase in which photons pass the slits approximately one by one and yet together produce an interference pattern. Based on experiences in 5 schools, we carefully designed the educational aspects of the demonstration and investigated its longterm learning effects through a written test of 68 students after 4 weeks and retention interviews after 4 months (10 interviews) and after 9 months (5 interviews). Students did remember the setup and results of the demonstration quite well. They were quite aware of the unexpected and strange wave-particle behavior of quantum particles in the demonstration including the effect of measurement or observation on the outcomes. However, half of them still had trouble defining duality in their own words and most of them did not remember de Broglie particle waves and how that related to the double slit experiment.

Also in teaching quantum physics one would like to bring experiments to the secondary school classroom, if not for "proofing" theories, then at least for illustrating and visualizing concepts. When EM waves are totally internally reflected from the inside of a prism, so called evanescent waves can tunnel through a narrow slit to another prism [1] and the intensity shows the exponential dependence on the width of the slit typical for tunneling. This is an example for quantum tunneling as quantum particles can tunnel as well due to their wave properties. This paper describes our progress from an ineffective microwave tunneling demonstration which we tried out with 5 teachers and 112 students, to a well-known optical demonstration but newly mounted in a small for loan suitcase with an educational script based on our try-outs and the PhET tunneling applet to link quantum concepts to tunneling phenomena.

This study presents a new approach to teaching quantum physics in high-school physics courses facing the extremely deficient and fragmented treatment of quantum mechanics at present. The suggested curriculum adopts the paradigm of discipline-culture in representing physics knowledge. In accordance, the curriculum is structured in nucleus-body-periphery emphasizing the principles (nucleus), their illustration (body) and their contrast with the classical postulates (periphery). Thus, the proposed curriculum presents quantum physics as a structured physics theory, unlike most curricula in the world. The results of an experimental application show a positive impact on students' conceptual knowledge and students' nature-of-science understanding.

There is consensus on the goal to introduce Quantum Mechanics in secondary school curricula for its paradigmatic role in the modern physics. In literature a wide spectra of proposals were developed and tested. With the goal to approach the basic ideas of quantum theory by means of active learning, we design a research based educational path in the context of light polarization, offering an open software environment for ideal experiments. Several Intervention Modules with secondary school students were performed, monitoring the learning paths by means of tutorials and pre-post-test for total about 900 students. Here a homogenous sample of 126 students is considered. Qualitative/quantitative data analysis shows coherent line of reasoning developed by students along the quantum concepts, coherent in some case with a hidden variables approach.

The paper focuses on a Quantum Computing teaching module for high school students that was designed and implemented within the I SEE Erasmus+ project (https://iseeproject.eu) The module is discussed as an example of how the S-T-E-M disciplines can be integrated to stress the conceptual, epistemological, and social relevance of quantum computing. We implemented a three-level approach to introduce quantum technologies without getting lost in the technicalities. The approach has allowed us to highlight the difference between classical and quantum computers and to bring out the interdisciplinary character that characterises the new technologies.

Application of quantum theory in informatics and the creation of quantum information devices have revolutionary changed our idea about the information systems. It seems to us that the only question is that quantum computers will be introduced in the next decade or in some years later. Anyhow, we should prepare to teach a radically new paradigm, the quantum algorithms, in informatics. Quantum algorithm can be demonstrated with quantum simulators. The present paper shows an educational material, which facilitates the teaching of this new field. Besides summarising the basic concepts and methods of quantum informatics, the working of a quantum algorithm on a quantum simulator will be also illustrated with the discussion of an exciting quantum physical phenomenon (the teleportation).

The superposition states, allowed by quantum theory, are dramatically diverse with respect to classical states and represent the true quantum states. By using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer we experimentally show how a single photon in a polarization superposition state can produce interference. The experimental setup includes a strongly attenuated laser source, polarizing beam splitters, half-waveplates, polarizers and single-photon detectors. The experimental activity has been performed with high-school students and teachers in several different contexts.

We present a sequence of activities designed to stimulate students to reflect on the nature of light and on the different models (ray, wave, classical and quantum particles) used in teaching and learning optics. These activities are also aimed to help students in evaluating the profound meaning of the "correspondence principle" and develop their own views about some aspects of nature of science even if it is not taught explicitly. In fact, optics is a paradigmatic case where different scientific models are proposed in the University (and high school) courses. Even the oldest of these models have non empty domains of validity and both Maxwellian electromagnetism and geometrical optics are largely still used in the Physics curricula. As a consequence students are often puzzled, and think that each of these theories works in a specific domain, without any connection one with the other. Thus we investigate students' mental models of light in different contexts and we show how they develop hybrid models in explaining different phenomena or use models inconsistently.

The development of a teacher professional learning workshop to support the General Relativity section of the Scottish Qualifications Authority Advanced Higher Physics course [1] for 17-18 year old secondary school students is described. This professional learning workshop is designed to support the development of teachers' subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge so they are better able to provide a conceptual, non-mathematical approach to teaching curved spacetime, spacetime diagrams and evidence of the tests for General Relativity. The professional learning workshop draws on a number of resources including the educational outreach materials from the Perimeter Institute [2,3,4].

A simple scintillator kit developed by Ian Bearden [1] was used to prepare a learning experience on gamma ray detection for secondary students. The goal is to offer an opportunity to collect gamma spectra, analyse data and understand how coincidence measurements are useful in space physics and in many other applications.

In an increasingly complex world, the science of complex systems is well-positioned to provide epistemological lenses and methodological tools to analyse the reality. Among the tools developed, computer simulations have a crucial role, but the ways in which they are conceptualized by graduate and undergraduate students have not been extensively explored. Framed within a wider research about the educational role of simulations of complex systems, the goal of this work is to provide insights into the understanding about simulations of university Physics and Mathematics students. For this purpose, a study has been designed with a group of bachelor and master students within a course of Physics Teaching. The object of this paper is to present the results of the data analysis of the preliminary questionnaires, where 27 students were asked to express their ideas about simulations. The bottom-up process of qualitative analysis has allowed to point out, and organize in categories, different ways in which simulations are conceptualized by the students, in terms of: i) scope for which simulations are used, ii) their relationship with experiments and models, and iii) the examples of simulations they refer to.

Research indicates students with more formal reasoning patterns are more proficient learners, while certain critical thinking abilities are important for living in modern society. Unfortunately, college courses do not typically promote these skills. In order to address this concern, we have developed a first semester introductory physics lab curriculum in which students engage in experimental design with emphasis placed on the use of evidence-based reasoning in making decisions in the lab and in report writing. This paper describes the underlying framework on which the curriculum is based and presents data which demonstrates significant shifts in student development of certain aspects of scientific reasoning.

In this paper we are presenting the design and evaluation process of a Teaching Learning Sequence (TLS) following Design Based Research (DBR) methodology. The TLS was designed for the upper secondary school students on particle dynamics. In this work, we present the very first results of the process. The iterative DBR methodology is presented giving evidences about design decision and tools for evaluation. This TLS was implemented in a post compulsory high school in the Basque Country. The results obtained in the first implementation show that there are improvements in the learning achieved by students in comparison with a control group. The strengths and weaknesses of the TLS will be analyzed for future redesign phase into DBR phases.

The presented article deals with the Conceptual Test in Wave Optics. It describes main steps of its development and structure and properties of the final version. Two sets of pilotage testing have been done so far. In the first part of the research 105 high school students were tested with a test reliability described by Cronbach's alpha on the level 0.2. Due to this low value another testing was carried out, this time with university students. It has showed reliability on the level 0.72. This article deals with results from the analysis of these two data sets and shows examples of possible wave optics misconceptions detected by this testing. The test is attached.

Although electromagnetic radiation is an omnipresent phenomenon in our everyday life, in Austria it is only taught in high schools. Our aim is to develop a research-based teaching and learning sequence on electromagnetic radiation for the middle school level. As a first design step, we developed central explanations, so called key ideas, to introduce the term of electromagnetic radiation and the interaction with matter. Those key ideas were evaluated with teaching experiments, using the method of probing acceptance. The outcomes are encouraging and help us to get a better understanding of students' problems and their perspectives while learning about radiation. The key ideas were adapted accordingly.

Over the past half-century free secondary level education has been introduced in the Irish education system and as a result a steady increase in the number of students completing a third level education has been observed. In tandem with this widening participation in second level education, curricula have been adapted to accommodate the varying needs and abilities of students while at the same time, addressing the changing role of science education in the national economy. Between 1966 and 2016, three different physics syllabi have been implemented at the upper secondary level in Irish schools. The focus of this study was to examine what were the cognitive demand of the Leaving Certificate Physics examination questions from 1966-2016. Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was used as a classification tool of the level of cognitive demand in the analysis of the examination question parts, as it has been used by the Irish Department of Education in the preparing the examination questions. A sample of nine Leaving Certificate Physics examination papers were selected as representative samples of the three syllabi spanning the fifty years. Despite clear changes in the three physics syllabi over the fifty year period with changes in examination question style, there was not a notable change in cognitive domains of examinations papers. All question parts were classified according to four levels of cognitive demand with the cognitive domain 'remember' coded most frequently (ranging from 73% in 1967 to 46% in the 2008 examination). Notably, none of the nine examination papers examined in this study contained questions (or question-parts) which coded for the cognitive domains of 'evaluate' or 'create'.

A description of the implementation of a completely renewed setup for Physics Bachelor labs is given. The renewed setup made use of the latest educational research insights and is described from the general Dublin descriptors and the CALOHEE assessment and National domain specific reference frame up to the concrete learning objectives that we aim for in the Bachelor practicals. A choice between more open and closed labs is discussed. This study makes use of educational design research and therefore mostly tests design principles. In general, the design principles behind the renewed setup have worked and students have been given a need to perform each step in the research process. Despite the courses becoming more challenging, students' results have gone up. We attribute this to specific types of iterations within the closed practicals and on the alternation between closed and open labs. Overall, most students attained the experimental skills that we aimed for and by the end of the practicals in year 2 most students also obtained the most relevant CALOHEE dimension of 'Experimental design and scientific inquiry', designed to assess students after year 3. The remaining obstacles are identified and suggestions for future improvements are given.

The new Hungarian National Core Curriculum was announced in January 2020, and the curriculum frameworks became available soon after. The authors took part in the development of the curriculum of physics. In this communication we present the main features of these new curricula. The learning outcomes of the core curriculum, the learning contents and the arrangement of the topics in the frameworks have been renewed in order to promote a more efficient way of physics teaching. The curriculum relies on the methods of active and phenomenon-based learning, it includes up-to-date contents, focuses more on practical topics, and follows the principles formulated by the OECD.

Classroom demonstrations and experiments have played an important role in physics teaching for centuries. They are important for deepening student knowledge and helping students gain meaningful understanding of physical principles. In addition, experiments can motivate stu-dents and facilitate their active engagement with abstract concepts. In this paper, we present four novel physics experiments and demonstrations that address the pedagogical needs of the 21st century physics teaching. These experiments: (a) employ modern technologies that bring physical phenomena closer to the students; (b) showcase teaching methods that reduce barriers for the students with special needs; and (c) suggest an innovative thermodynamics demonstration related to environmental issues and green energy. The descriptions of the experiments, their applications to secondary school teaching as well as to college-level physics education are thoroughly discussed.

Suppose you are suddenly assigned to a bare classroom instead of your nicely equipped physics room. What can you do to still have a clear and exciting lesson? In this workshop I present a collection of small and quick demonstrations and visualizations for secondary education, which require no equipment beyond what is present in a typical lecture room or bare classroom (chalk, chairs, students, books, paper, student bags and typical contents). The nature of the demos is varied, some are to verify an explanation, but most are to illustrate, visualize, or simulate. In the workshop participants will add their own ideas.

The LADYCATS (LADY Creators of Activities for Teaching Science) were founded in 2005 in cooperation with Professor Hiroshi Kawakatsu (1945–2018) to encourage both female physics teachers and students who want to study physics more, and primary school teachers who feel unprepared to teach physics-based lessons. We have demonstrated 'simple and beautiful experiments' together for the past 14 years. Our concepts are as follows: the 'simple' experiments are easy to complete, while the 'beautiful' ones are interesting, and the 'essential' experiments demonstrate the principles of physics. We lost our leader, Professor Hiroshi Kawakatsu, in 2018. He always said, 'Everyone has a right to learn'. We follow in Professor Kawakatsu's footsteps and demonstrate several educational experiments that he liked and demonstrated.

Incorporating authentic inquiry into high school physics instruction has been advocated for over a century, and has become an integral part of science instruction standards world-wide. The Inquiry Physics program in Israel is a 3 year, elective course for high school physics majors. Students acquire scientific research knowledge and skills primarily by performing inquiry projects of increasing complexity and finally devoting a full year to researching a significant issue under the guidance of expert mentors. Selecting a suitable research topic requires management of tensions related to complexity of content, experimental practice, data analysis and project logistics. The Jumping Ring phenomenon, in which a metal ring is launched vertically due to a magnetic force generated by a coil carrying AC current, was the subject of a final inquiry project in 2018. The phenomenon offers dramatic appeal and motivation, rich inquiry options and diverse experimental skills, considerable knowledge consolidation and extension (magnetic fields and forces, electromagnetic induction and AC circuits) along with technological and logistic manageability. Mentoring the project involved exploring an uncharted learning-opportunities' path, balancing direct instruction and independent exploration, as well as dealing with time constraints and variations in the project team's attendance and commitment.

The coefficient of restitution of the bounces of a marble on a table is here studied and measured in terms of the total bouncing time. Interesting links arise with mathematics (geometric series) as well as philosophy (Zeno's paradox), which make our proposal appealing for an interdisciplinary teaching-learning sequence. The relevance of this work for high school and undergraduate students is discussed with emphasis on students' misconceptions when dealing with infinite processes.

We present in the contribution an activity which is focused on wetting and capillarity. Experiments with hydrophobic coating are part of the activity too. We use this activity at lower and upper secondary school level, detailed description of the activity and our experience with it is discussed in the paper.

The article deals with an inquiry-based approach to teaching density to the age group 12-13. The whole methodological sequence is presented, including necessary equipment, worksheet for pupils, an example of results measured by pupils, reflection of the lesson, etc. Also, the experience of the implementation of the lessons is mentioned.

To introduce the fundamental concepts and formalism of Quantum Mechanics at the base of Quantum Calculus and Quantum Cryptography we developed an experiment-based module centered on the use of a Mach-Zehnder laser interferometer equipped with linear polarizers. By analyzing the constructive and destructive interference, students are guided to understand the meaning of mutual exclusivity and incompatibility of polarization states (H, V) and (45°, 135°). A MATLAB simulation allows the understanding of the experimental results in terms of single photons. The module was tested as a pilot intervention on a group of Computer Science PhD students at the University of Verona.

Due to the rapid pace of development of new technologies, technology can be a hopeful ally in many areas, including education. By using new progress science classes can thus be more attractive. Experiments with classic and outdated devices are not exciting for students but can now be replaced by modern devices based on sensors, actuators and microcontrollers. The paper describes how can be find solutions for experimental physics devices using in vocational education sensors, microcontrollers, actuators, etc. New technologies into the learning process can be a factor of inspiration and motivation for students embrace a career in STEM.

Education in the 21^st century requires a new design of educational programs for all types and levels of schools. The pre-graduate physics teacher education faces new requirements from the learning school environment. Now we need to answer the key question, if our university is able to prepare students for their further practice at schools. This paper will present the outcomes of our research aimed at the pedagogical content knowledge of the pre-graduate science teachers. The main goal of the research was to compare the competences of experienced practical teachers and students specialized in teaching during their contiguous teaching practice. Based on the research results the evaluation of the science teacher education program at the Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, was realized.

Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education and aims to create equal opportunities for all children to achieve a balanced cognitive, emotional and psychomotor development tailored to individual needs. The paper presents informal activities implemented for elementary school students to familiarize them with simple sensors, actuators and BIT microcontrollers that can be programmed with simple software. The activities were carried out in four working groups, organized in the classrooms, the participants being pupils in the third grade. Activities began with a description of the term "robotics" and a short film showing the importance of educational robots. After the introduction into the world of robotics, high school students, member of Nano Tech Robotics Club, implemented interactive activities for elementary school students using Micro: Bit microcontroller and simple sensors.

This presentation showed the results of my study which was connected to a survey in ELTE University in Budapest 8 years ago. The results of my research prompted me to prepare a compilation for high school students. In this work I tried to acquaint them from one side the energetics in general and from the other side the areas of use of the different energy sources, highlighting the natural conditions and the resulting opportunities for the energy production of Hungary. My aim was that the students could get a professionally authentic and understandable information in these topics. According to this I hope they could realize the importance of the energy supply in their future.

The continental- and global-scale spreading of pollutants emitted from volcano eruptions or industrial accidents is an everyday issue in our life. Nevertheless, students are generally not aware of the fact that pollutant clouds do not spread in the atmosphere like dye blobs on clothes, rather an initially small and compact pollutant cloud becomes soon strongly stretched, while becoming filamentary and folded. This paper introduces an application called Replat-Chaos-edu by means of which students can investigate the characteristics of the atmospheric dispersion of volcanic ash clouds and other pollutants in an interactive way. The simulations utilize meteorological data and follow the time evolution of pollutant clouds consisting of a large number of individual particles. Replat-Chaos-edu is also a suitable tool for studying the so-called chaotic features of the advection. The software was tested at the Berzsenyi Dániel Grammar School and the Szent István Grammar School (Budapest, Hungary) in the framework of Physics classes and during a project week, respectively.

Standards documents envision that students in grades K-6 engage in developmentally appropriate yet substantive learning in physics and physical science. Students are expected to engage in the practices of the discipline, trying to develop – and experimentally defend – their own explanations of rich everyday phenomena. Teachers need special preparation to meet this challenge. Traditional preparation in lecture-based science university courses or courses that emphasize engaging demonstrations with little intellectual ballast are unlikely to yield the kind of rich experiential and rich discourse-based instructional environment for young pupils to thrive. In this GIREP Symposium, speakers introduced promising models for teacher preparation and enhancement and contribute to a discussion in search of a coherent research-based agenda for like-minded GIREP members.

Recently, teacher education in Austria has undergone major changes. Among other factors, profound content knowledge is essential for the professionalisation of teachers and the later quality of their instruction at school. First evaluation findings of our physics teacher education program revealed year two students' deficits in the conceptual understanding of introductory mechanics. Since conceptual difficulties hinder meaningful learning of advanced topics and the development of pedagogical content knowledge, we adapted courses by integrating parts of tutorials of the University of Washington into the existing courses without changing the entire teaching mode. We used a pre-post-test design to investigate the impact of these short phases of the tutorial approach. The results indicate that this kind of learning opportunities supports students' conceptual understanding in the field of mechanics. It shows a positive impact on content knowledge and self-efficacy. Students' feedback on the tutorial approach shows that most students of the intervention groups appreciated this approach and its usefulness. In addition, all students pleaded for continuing the tutorial approach in the calculus-based mechanic course.

Mathematics and sciences, in particular physics, are structurally related to each other. Understanding the specific nature of these subjects and their reciprocal interplay is important particularly for future teachers in primary school, where they have to be competent in building the literacy starting from a multidisciplinary perspective. One basic aspect of the educational process in primary school is the gradual building of scientific thought. The primary teachers' competence is based on different disciplinary areas and cultural spheres related to each other. The weak competence in the mathematical and scientific scope has to be transformed into the capacity to offer a grounded scientific education and mathematical instruction, accompanying the identification of the disciplines with concrete examples from everyday life. Therefore primary teachers need insight into the basics of the subjects. This research analyses the spontaneous ideas about the relationship between math and physics of prospective primary teachers attending the course of primary education at the University of Udine. Results of a teaching intervention module focused on the reflection on this aspect are analyzed in the framework of corresponding models in literature in order to study the problem of how to improve teachers' awareness about the Interplay between Mathematics and Physics (IMP).

We highlight here part of a longitudinal study, which sought to follow a group of future physics teachers and explain how research has been introduced in or affected their initial training. We seek to analyse their representations of the role of an 'exemplary teacher', considering that some of the graduates affirmed to have chosen a career as a teacher because of the influence of their high school teachers. The data were collected through questionnaires administered at the beginning of the study to students enrolled in the teacher education programme and treated by Discourse Analysis. We compare students' representations with five dimensions that characterize an "exemplary teacher". The results show that the characteristics of their high school teachers appear in the discourse of the students when they refer to an "exemplary teacher".

This contribution describes aims and implementation of the Quantum Physics course specially designed for future physics teachers at secondary and high schools. Although the course syllabus is the same as for the courses for future physicists, emphasis is placed on understanding of basic concepts and students' ability to discuss about them. The active learning methods and various means of graphical representations are used to meet this goal. The course has been tuned to its present form for about ten years and reaches very positive feedback from students.

Dissemination of reformed curriculum requires teachers to feel that they have the freedom to implement the curriculum in the classroom. Even instructors who are trained in research-based instruction and are convinced of its value might fail to implement the curriculum in the classroom if, for example, they feel a lack of support from their school or colleagues. In this talk, we will report on the validation process of a survey designed to measure a "teacher's or pre-service teacher's perceived agency", which we define as "a feeling of being in control over what is taught and of how it is taught."

This work presents a series of lessons containing didactic experiments, as well as the related educational research. The series concerns the instruction of prospective primary school teachers who possess a weak Physics background. The main topics of instruction are: basic concepts of wave behavior (mainly interference and diffraction), as well as the wave properties of light. This instruction is based on POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) techniques. It constitutes the basis of a broader effort in the making, which aims at teaching future teachers about wave properties and wave-particle duality. The benefits of teaching such notions of waves to teachers are examined, the learners' previous knowledge and their views are scrutinised, and their learning progress is monitored. As a further step, the overall outcome of the improvement of learners' knowledge regarding the given concepts is examined, using educational research tools.

In this document, we will present the results of an investigation carried out in initial teacher education for pre-service secondary school Physics and Mathematics teachers in Chile. A Teaching and Learning Sequence (TLS) was iteratively designed following a Design-based research approach and implemented to promote the construction of an adequate School Scientific Model (SSM) of energy. This SSM is based on the well-known work on energy related concepts in physics education, including the ideas of energy degradation, conservation and transference. The methodology followed in the TLS is based on modeling and model-based inquiry. Subsequently, we have analyzed pre-service teachers' qualitative productions to identify which model of energy they master at both the beginning and the end of the program. This allowed us to get hints of a learning progression in this field.

To assure that current science education practices are aligned with recent educational research findings, there must be a constant effort of investigating the environments in which teachers are educated and prepared for their pedagogical action. One of the epistemic practices that should be discussed and taught in every teacher education program is argumentation. Preparing future teachers to construct and evaluate arguments and enabling them to design activities that scaffold students' argumentative skills has become a highly desirable goal in science education in the past few decades. Despite that, few studies have been devoted to studying the role of argumentation and argumentative development in initial and continuing teacher education. The present study was aimed at observing and analyzing some of the characteristics of three courses of an undergraduate Physics teacher education program at a public university in the State of São Paulo (Brazil), and to compare them in terms of their potential contributions to the development or argumentation skills of its students. Preliminary results suggest that the curricular reform that has been implemented was responsible for shifting practices to a much more updated and theory-informed model, but the program's focus is still on written instruction, and not on the development of oral communication skills, which would be key for a fertile argumentative development.

The students enrolled in introductory physics courses at Loránd Eötvös University (ELTE) are tested with the Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT) since 2016. It is used as a pre-test at the beginning of the first semester and as a post-test at the beginning of the second one. In this study, an account is given about the newest results of the test and about our endeavor to make introductory courses more effective. Therefore, the effect of the size of the study group, the reduction of curriculum and motivation on students' performance were investigated. The preliminary results show that smaller groups are more efficient, and the reduction of the curriculum does not play a major role in the possession of the knowledge concerned. Conversely, the motivation of the students increases the understanding of concepts and therefore, the performance at MBT.

This paper is part of a study that aims to present a panorama of the teaching of physics in Brazil, contributing to the memory of physics teaching in this country. It also aims to support research of greater amplitude, to be carried out in the future in other member countries of IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics). In this part of the study, data from several sources were considered, among others, Brazilian Society of Physics (BSP), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the Nacional Institute of Pedagogical Studies (INEP) and the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC). Due to the wide range of information obtained and the multiple possibilities of analysis, we chose to explore and interpret part of the data here and, for that matter, we used documentary analysis only. The data analyzed allowed us to establish, for example, relationships between the number of students attending high school in Brazilian public schools, the number of licensed teachers who work in these schools in each state of the country. These data also allowed us to link with data from the literature on the subject, which consider the causes of teaching avoidance and undergraduate courses in Physics, aggravating factors for the precarious situation of the medium level physics teaching in the country.

In this age, the need for technology literate workforce has increased. The responsibility of teachers has increased in the education systems that will train this workforce. In order for individuals to be trained in accordance with the skills required for the 21st century, it is important to train prospective teachers for these skills. Physics course has an important place in science and accordingly technology. In this study, it was aimed to increase the awareness of prospective teacher candidates on this subject and to develop the skills of researching technology, understanding, and transferring them in accordance with the classroom environment. The study was carried out with a total of 21 students according to qualitative research methods in 2016-2017-2018 fall semesters. They were asked to research the two technologies they wanted, to identify the physics topics within the scope of these technologies, and to transfer this to the classroom environment. Findings were obtained from the data collected through observation, document review and semi-structured interview techniques. At the end of the study, it was determined that prospective teachers increased their awareness about the importance of technology and physics in technology in physics teaching. In addition, it was concluded that prospective teachers wanted to research new technologies and adopt the behaviour of discussing technology in their lessons. It is suggested that these results should be extended to other prospective teachers in order to train individuals not only using technology but also producing it.

This article presents the effectiveness of multimedia tools and communication technologies usage in teaching electricity and magnetism course at al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan. The implementations are based on prepared multimedia packages within EU projects of Didactics of Physics Division at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruñ in earlier collaboration with University of Udine, Italy and Charles University, Prague. The implemented packages at KazNU are simple didactical objects ("Physics and Toys") and "hands-on" experiment in electromagnetism. All implementations were positively evaluated by students, as they lead to an increased didactical efficiency and improve students' motivation to in self-learning.

We recognised that students can be motivated by those issues they are personally affected by. Such topic can be nuclear radiation that we live in. The realization led to the school project of radioactivity measurement. We joined the international Safecast projekt. Safecast is an outdoors radioactivity measurement project that represents a long-term and effective way of informal teaching of Physics outside classroom environment.. We noticed a unique contradiction between the demand of developed nuclear technologies and the societal attitude declining these. After the disaster of Fukushima, people's nuclear sense of security has decreased in a global extent. This model is a successful initiative worldwide for the restoration of trust. Results of the measurement can be viewed by people all around the world on Google Maps and they are incredible impressive. The implemented project is a decent combination of formal and informal learning, based on the model of research-based teaching. After our 1-year observation, we were able to encourage 20% of inactive students to participate in Safecast project – using an informal teaching style. In groups of 20 and 25, the sense of nuclear safety of members increased 18% and 22%.

The aim of this poster presentation is to present the results of a survey regarding the impact of extracurricular education at Palacký University science centre on pupils' school performance in comparison with curricular education survey. This survey is realised by a pre-test and a post-test. Furthermore, readers will be introduced to teaching materials used during the science centre lectures-pupils' worksheets, methodology for teachers and optical lenses preparation manual. These components are used by the pupils during the experiments. After their evaluation, the pupils describe the observed physical phenomena.