A Computational Model of Maxwell’s Distribution for Undergraduates

In this paper we employ a numerical approach to perform simulations of Maxwell distribution for several dimensionalities, based on the Central Limit Theorem. We show that by increasing the number of molecules of the gas N, the simulated distributions tend toward the respective theoretical distributions. Also, we observed that by increasing the model temperature n, the distribution shifted toward higher speeds, in agreement with theoretical results. The numerical simulations provide a physical definition of the concept of temperature. The codes used to perform the simulations are quite easy to construct and implement, while the results strikingly satisfy theoretical expectations. Furthermore, the actual approach makes it possible to skip the mathematical details and explain the distribution by just following the algorithm of simulations. We recommend such approach as a demonstrative tool that can be shown in a lecture class thus enriching the teaching quality and improving students’ understanding.

Views of Prospective Chemistry Teachers on the Use of Graphic Organizers Supported with Interactive PowerPoint Presentation Technology in Teaching Electrochemistry Concepts

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the views and experiences of the prospective chemistry teachers (PCTs) about the use of graphic organizers (GOs) supported with interactive PowerPoint presentation technology in teaching electrochemistry concepts. Ten GOs were developed and a pair of slides for all of them which contains partial and complete versions of the GOs was constructed. Participants of this study consisted of two different study groups. The preliminary trial of the study was carried out with four senior PCTs who have previously taken both an Electrochemistry course and an elective course concerning graphic organizers. Data from the first group of the study were collected by semi-structured interview and the experiences of the first group regarding the difficulties experienced during traditional electrochemistry teaching (didactic lecture) were examined. The second study group was eight PCTs who were in the fifth semester and were taking the Electrochemistry course while the study was being undertaken. In the last three weeks of the Electrochemistry course in the second study group, the course was taught with GOs supported with interactive PowerPoint presentation technology, and then the views of them were taken by a written opinion form. At the end of the study, three themes emerged regarding the experiences of the PCTs for the traditionally taught electrochemistry course. These are "difficulties", "inadequacy", and "not being beneficial". It was also concluded that the PCTs thought that the use of GOs supported with interactive PowerPoint presentation technology in teaching electrochemistry could enhance the comprehension and motivation of students.

Women’s leadership in chemistry education: An interview with Rachel Mamlok-Naaman

Dr. Rachel Mamlok-Naaman, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, is a distinguished researcher in chemistry education. This paper presents an interview that was conducted in light of her achievements and in recognition of her receiving the IUPAC 2021 award for Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering.

A Longitudinal Study on the Chemical Knowledge of Prospective University Students

Many universities face the challenge that high dropout rates (e.g. ~ 30 % in chemistry in Germany) are observed in higher education. Accordingly, the college readiness of prospective students is doubted. In this context this article focuses on the content-specific and cognitive characteristic as part of the college readiness. Within four years we examined the responses from more than 500 prospective students who participated in a content-specific prior knowledge test in chemistry. Overall, we found that content-specific prior knowledge test and average Abitur grade (final highschool grade) remained almost constant. In addition, a low correlation between the content-specific knowledge and the average Abitur grade was found. Finally, only deficits and strengths in individual subject areas of chemistry could be identified throughout the years, which are presented in this article as examples.

Development of school laboratory participation over a period of six months: A case study of aspects of divergent thinking and problem discovery

Creativity, especially problem discovery and divergent thinking are skills that will be demanded for more and more jobs in the future. STEM subjects are leading the way. Schools are an important learning place to train the future generation of workers. However, promotion of creativity in STEM subjects is not sufficiently implemented. Chemistry teachers prefer frontal teaching instead of free, pupil-centred methods that encourage creative work. Extracurricular learning activities offer potential due to the free work atmosphere of a self-discovered problem. Pupils then have to solve it. In the context of this study, the development of problem discovery and divergent thinking of gender, parental academic background and gender differences based on parental academic background will be presented in this study. It is based on two school laboratories: Agnes-Pockels-Lab (without accompanying and professional support) and the DroPS project (with accompanying and professional support).

Impact of Systematic Assessment of Instruction on Secondary School Students’ Physics Achievement at Cognitive Level of Knowledge

The study examined empirically the impact of systematic and unsystematic assessment of instructions, cognitive style and gender on knowledge of physics concepts among Senior Secondary Two (SS II) Students in Lagos Island Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. It made use of 120 secondary school two (SS II) students (72 males and 48 females) in a pretest-posttest non-randomized control group design in which treatment systematic assessment at two levels was crossed with two levels of cognitive style and gender. Data analysis involved analysis of covariance and graphical illustration as post-hoc measures. The results indicate that allowing systematic attributes of continuous assessment (CASS) to come into play in physics teaching has significant effect on remembering of physics concepts across all the students’ cognitive style-gender groupings. The results also indicate a significant gender-group (in support of females) in remembering of physics concepts. These results show the need for secondary school physics teachers to bring in systematic characteristic of CASS into the assessment of physics teaching. The teachers should also be more patient with male students since their knowledge of physics concepts is significantly lower than that of their female counterparts.

Multitouch Experiment Instruction and Self-Regulation

In context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the range of experiments offered by the Schülerlabor NanoBioLab at Saarland University was expanded to include an experiment on the topic of water analysis, which provided the basis of the intervention. In addition to the analogue experiment instruction, there is a digital version which is presented as a Multitouch Experiment Instruction (MEI). MEIs are digitally enriched, interactive experiment instructions that accompany the cognitive learning process of pupils and promote competencies in the digital world (Seibert et al., 2020). In this study, we analysed whether the MEI could support self-regulated learning in an indirect support approach by considering different hierarchical levels of self-regulation in the design of the materials. The results show a significant acquisition of self-regulatory competences of learners in grades ten and eleven by using the MEI compared to the analogue version.

Development and Validation of Motivation Scale towards Physics Learning

This research aims to develop a valid and reliable scale to determine the motivation levels for learning. Within the scope of this aim, the study was conducted on Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) at a University level with the participation of 1081 undergraduate pre-service science teachers in Turkey. EFA results show the scale consists of 22 items which are grouped under 3 factors which are Self-Efficacy, Appreciation-Reward, and Value of Learning Physics. The total variance explained by the factors is 53.448%. Cronbach alpha coefficient was found to be .911 for the whole scale. The findings suggest the Motivation Scale towards Physics Learning (MSPL) is a good tool that researchers and instructors can use to efficiently assess students’ motivation to learn physics in universities.

Emerging and Persistent Issues in the Delivery of Asynchronous Non-Traditional Undergraduate Physics Experiments

Remote physics laboratory activities are common tools of use in physics in traditional, online, and distance education to enhance student learning. Although these offerings necessitated by technological advances, spur innovation and improvement in undergraduate physics education, their use as stand-alone substitutes for instructor-guided physical laboratory experiments remain the center of debate and research. This paper discusses the effectiveness of the current pedagogic issues in the delivery and learning of four different types of remote introductory undergraduate physics laboratory activities, the breakthroughs, and the areas that require further investigations. The instructional issues include experiment preparation and design, student engagement, guidance, and safety. This review noted the positive impacts of stand-alone remote physics lab activities on mostly undergraduate non-physics majors, partly due to the limited number of institutions currently conferring complete online/distance physics degrees worldwide. We recommend further studies on the effect on physics students who end up in experimental physics-related careers.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Computer Assisted Instructions in Physics at Undergraduate Level

Previous researchers have demonstrated significant improvement in students’ conceptual understanding of basic physics using interactive engagement methods of instruction. In this study, the effects of interactive computerbased simulations and animations investigated in classroom on students' conceptual understanding of electrostatics. Two groups – one control and one experimental of students at third year undergraduate level were studied to determine the role of computer simulations and animations in the development of functional understanding of the concepts of force, field, and potential in electrostatics. While few misconceptions persisted, the overall results indicate that students seem to have acquired a good general understanding of these concepts using such package. This occurred mainly in the area of verbal, vector and diagrammatic representation of the abstract physics concepts involved in the study.