All Resources

Journal Article

The Case Study: E-Mail From Socrates

Humans are storytelling animals that learn best when things are put into an experience or story. Teachers seem to think they can just lecture about the principles that they believe govern the world and the students will remember them. This is in sp...

Journal Article

Models for Integrating Technology in Higher Education: The Physics of Sound

Institutions that place laptops in the hands of every student offer unique opportunities to integrate technology into instruction. The following is a description of how various technologies have been introduced into a new undergraduate physics cours...

Journal Article

Ask the Experts -- Summer 2006

The experts address the question, "Why do yellow and blue make green when we mix colors?" and "Why does infrared light make skin feel warm, when ultraviolet light in fact has higher energy?"...

Journal Article

Idea Bank: Periodic Table of Cereal Boxes

Do you find that helping students to understand the concept of periodicity to be a difficult task? If so, try implementing this introductory activity that was developed to increase students' understanding of periodicity by relating the organization o...

Journal Article

Issues In-depth: Roll tape? Recommendations regarding video viewing in public school classrooms

Did you know that showing a video not related to your instruction as a reward or for recreational purposes, for example, violates federal law and is a felony that may carry a penalty of up to five years and/or $150,00 fine for willful infringement? A...

Journal Article

Twisters, Tall Tales, & Science Teaching

Legends and tall tales have been part of the American culture for ages. Your students are probably already familiar with the tales of how Pecos Bill fearlessly tamed a ferocious tornado, or Paul Bunyan effortlessly restrained a great river. Such tale...

Journal Article

Favorite Demonstration: One Hot Demonstration -- The Urban Heat Island Effect

Demonstrations are most successful as a teaching tool when they can link a scientific principle to a real-life application of the knowledge. When posed as an inquiry activity, classroom demonstrations reinforce factual retention and facilitate the u...

Journal Article

Say Cheese! Digital Collections in the Classroom

Children love gadgets. And what better "gadget" to work with in the classroom than a digital camera? Digital cameras are easy to find, easy to use, and offer great potential for incorporating technology into your lessons. One fourth-grade class em...

Journal Article

Knowledge Retention of Exercise Physiology Content Between Athletes and Nonathletes

Based on the idea that learning is linked to personal relevance, this study examined knowledge retention of exercise physiology content between college athletes and nonathletes. No differences were observed between the groups. These findings have i...

Journal Article

Reading Questions: Encouraging Students to Read the Text Before Coming to Class

College science teachers know that students get the most out of class if they have completed the assigned reading. To reinforce this expectation, we ask our introductory physics students to submit a question they had about reading. In this paper we...

Journal Article

Science 101: What Causes Lightning and Thunder?

The mechanism that leads to lightning is complicated and not well understood. That it's not well understood isn't surprising, as this is often the case when going from scientific models to the real world. Even so, we can paint a reasonable picture ...