Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Education
Modeling Potential Energy Of The Gaussian Gun, Leslie Atkins Elliott, André Bolliou, Hanna Irving, Douglas Jackson
Modeling Potential Energy Of The Gaussian Gun, Leslie Atkins Elliott, André Bolliou, Hanna Irving, Douglas Jackson
Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations
The Gaussian gun is an arrangement of magnets and ball bearings (pictured in Fig. 1) such that—when the leftmost ball is released—the rightmost ball is ejected at high speeds. The device has been described in several articles on energy education. The sudden appearance of kinetic energy offers a productive context for considering a range of challenging ideas: the often-counterintuitive relationship between force and potential energy, the escape velocity for attractive forces, why energy is required to break bonds, and why energy is released when bonds form. Beyond these ideas, it is also useful for motivating the representation of a potential …
How We Think About And Prepare To Teach Physics, Dewey I. Dykstra
How We Think About And Prepare To Teach Physics, Dewey I. Dykstra
Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations
We have been preparing physics teachers in the same manner for many decades. Yet, physics education research reveals for some observers disturbing evidence of little or no change in understanding the phenomena occurs as a direct result of physics instruction from elementary school through the college years. The apparent compatibility between these learning results and prevailing paradigm enables the construction of a description the paradigm. If it can be demonstrated that there is even just one alternative paradigm from which powerful alternative pedagogical practice is derived, are we not obligated to change how we prepare to teach physics?