Physics Alive

311 Pages·2012·18.81 MB·English

Proceedings
GIREP-EPEC Conference 2011
August1–5,Jyväskylä,Finland
Physics Alive
Editors:
Anssi Lindell
Anna-Leena Kähkönen
Jouni Viiri
ISBN978-951-39-4801-6
ProceedingsGIREP-EPECConference2011,PhysicsAlive
JYFLResearchReportno. 10/2012
UniversityofJyväskylä
PREFACE
ThisbookbringstogethertheselectedpaperspresentedintheinternationalGIREP-EPEC2011
st th
conference, which was held in Jyväskylä, Finland 1 -5 August 2011. Each paper was blind
reviewedbymembersofthescientificcommittee. Papersweresubsequentlyrevisedbyauthors
according to reviewers’ comments. These versions have finally been reviewed by the editors to
improveconsistencyofstyleandlanguage.
Mostofthecontributionsincorporatethethemeoftheconference,PhysicsAlive. Thecollection
of papers emphasizes the efforts toward increasing student motivation in Physics and teaching
the lively and developing field of Physics in lively manner. As an outcome of a conference of
diverse topics and audience, the articles vary in objectives and methodology - and that is why
theymakeauniquecollectionofinterestingresearchquestions,methodsandresultstoimprove
teachingofPhysics. Wehopethatyouwillfindthisbookasavaluableresourceofinformation
andnewideas.
This book and electronic publication constitute a single product. When referring to any of
the papers, whether in the book or in the online content, the reference should be: [Au-
thor(s)](2012).[Paper title]. In A. Lindell, A.-L. Kähkönen, & J. Viiri (Eds.), Physics Alive.
Proceedings of the GIREP-EPEC 2011 Conference, (page numbers). Jyväskylä: University of
Jyväskylä.
Finally,weacknowledgealltheauthorsfortheircontributionsandtheassistanceofthereview-
ersandtheInternationalScientificCommittee:
Carl Angell, Norway; Constantinos P. Constantinou, Cyprus; Leos Dvorak, Czech Republic;
Ton Ellermeijer, Netherlands; Claudia Haagen-Schuetzenhoefer, Austria; Ismo Koponen, Fin-
land; Robert Lambourne, UK; Ian Lawrence, UK, Matti Leino, Finland; Jukka Maalampi, Fin-
land;LeopoldMathelitsch,Austria;JuhaMerikoski,Finland;MarisaMichelini,Italy;NicosPa-
padouris,Cyprus;WimPeeters,Belgium;GorazdPlaninsic,Slovenia;DimitrisPsillos,Greece;
LorenzoSanti,Italy;AnttiSavinainen,Finland;LaurenceViennot,France.
AnssiLindell
ChairoftheGIREP-EPEC2011Conference
Editor
JouniViiri
AssociateEditor
Anna-LeenaKähkönen
SecretaryoftheEditorialBoard
UniversityofJyväskylä,
Jyväskylä,Finland
June2012
Statisticsoftheconference
Participants 144
Countries 33
Argentina 2
Armenia 1
Austria 4
Belgium 2
Brazil 1
Croatia 2
Cyprus 1
CzechRepublic 12
Finland 26
France 1
Germany 3
Greece 2
Iran,Islamicrepublicof 1
Israel 1
Italy 14
Japan 4
Korea,Republicof 4
Latvia 2
Malta 1
Mexico 4
Netherlands 6
Norway 2
Poland 6
Portugal 3
Singapore 2
Slovakia 2
Slovenia 9
SouthAfrica 1
Spain 2
Sweden 3
Switzerland 1
Turkey 2
UnitedKingdom 13
USA 4
Invitedlectures 9
Oralpresentations 82
Posterpresentations 24
Workshops 10
Symposium 1

Contents
Printed Papers
Assunta Bonanno, Giacomo Bozzo, Michele Camarca, Marisa Michelini and Pep-
pinoSapia”FreeIdeas”: Resultsfromaninnovativeprojectforteacherdevelopmentin
Calabria(Italy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Ulrike Böhm, Gesche Pospiech, Hermann Körndle and Susanne Narciss What’s
wrongwithourunderstandingofthemirrorimage? –Blendingmathematicsandphysics
modelinphysicslessonandaddinghumanperspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Luigia Cazzaniga, Marco Giliberti and Nicola Ludwig The use of infrared thermog-
raphytocreatea”bridge”connectingPhysicsinthelabtoPhysicsofbuilding . . . . . 13
Claudio Fazio, Giovanni Tarantino and Rosa Maria Sperandeo-Mineo Teachers’
competences about Inquiry Based approaches to the analysis of Thermal Phenomena:
implicationsforanappropriatetraining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Marco Giliberti and Sara Barbieri ”Mommy Comet” brings children to discover the
SolarSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
OlgaGiokaPreparingphysicsteacherstoteacheffectivelyintheschoollaboratory . . . 31
Mihael Gojkosek, Gorazd Planinsic and Josip Slisko Students’ constructions of the
explanatorymodelsfortheprismaticfoil: influencesofcognitivelevelandtasksequencing 37
Claudia Haagen-Schuetzenhoefer and Martin Hopf The Status Quo of Lab Infras-
tructure and Equipment in Austrian Secondary Schools and Implications on Teaching
Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
IlkkaHendolinDoLectureDemonstrationsSupportProblemSolving? . . . . . . . . . 49
Peter Hockicko Development of key competencies using video analysis of motions by
Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Katarina Jelicic, Gorazd Planinsic and Maja Planinic A novel approach to determin-
inginducedvoltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
GrzegorzKarwaszTeachingscienceinearlychildhood–inquiry-based,interactivepath
onenergy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Mikko Kesonen, Mervi A. Asikainen and Pekka E. Hirvonen University students’
difficultiesinatutorialfeaturingtwosourceinterference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
AnttiLahertoResearch-basedstrategiesforillustratingthenanoscaleinanexhibition . 80
EricaLaurenti,CristinaMarianiandFedericoCorniAqualitativelookonchildren’s
wordsinexplanationofprocesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
RistoLeinonen,MerviAsikainenandPekkaHirvonenHintsandpeer-peerinteraction
inthelearningofuniversitythermalphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Paul Logman, Wolter Kaper and Ton Ellermeijer Motivating students to perform an
experimentintechnologicaldesigncontexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
AlessandraMossentaandMarisaMicheliniAcasestudyofPLS-Labonelectrostatics 104
V
Pasi Nieminen, Antti Savinainen, Niina Nurkka and Jouni Viiri An Intervention for
UsingMultipleRepresentationsofForceinUpperSecondarySchoolCourses . . . . . . 111
David Sands Profiling the mechanics knowledge of UK university entrants using the
ForceConceptInventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Antti Savinainen, Asko Mäkynen, Pasi Nieminen and Jouni Viiri An Intervention
Using an Interaction Diagram for Teaching Newton’s Third Law in Upper Secondary
School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
SuviTalaGainingknowledge-buildingexpertiseinnanomodelling . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Hildegard Urban-Woldron Physics Teachers: Gaining Confidence in Integrating Edu-
cationalTechnologiesintoStudentLearning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Onne van Buuren, Peter Uylings and Ton Ellermeijer The use of formulas by lower
levelsecondaryschoolstudentswhenbuildingcomputermodels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Ed van den Berg Long term effects of an innovative physics teacher education program
inthePhilippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Norbert van Veen and Ed van den Berg Interactive White Board in Physics Teaching;
BeneficialforPhysicsAchievement? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Electronic Papers
https://www.jyu.fi/en/congress/girep2011
Sara Barbieri, Marco Giliberti and Claudio Fazio Conduction as a prerequisite to
superconductivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Pavel Brom and Frantisek Lustig Integrated e-learning and the opportunity for anyone
toexplorethenatureofpolarisationoflight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Jitka Bruestlova and Pavel Dobis Exploring Physical Properties of Ferromagnetic Ma-
terialsinStudentLaboratories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
IgnacioCamposFlores,JoséLuisJiménezRamírez,GabrielaDelValleDíazMuñoz
and Guadalupe Hernández Morales The source of confusion in courses of modern
physicsofcollegelevel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Sergej Faletic and Gorazd Planinsic Analyzing polarized light produced by reflection
andscattering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Sergej Faletic, Mihael Gojkosek and Katarina Jelicic MUSE workshop: reflections
andfeedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
SergejFaletic,GorazdPlaninsicandAlesMohoric”Howthingswork?” –Undergrad-
uateoptionalcourseforphysicsstudents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
TomasFrancGravitationalAssistedTrajectories–makingyourownpicturesandtrajec-
torystudy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Rui G. Neves, Judah L. Schwartz, Jorge C. Silva, Vítor D. Teodoro and Pedro C.
Vieira Learning Introductory Physics with Computational Modelling and Interactive
Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Osamu Hirayama Demonstration and experiments of rolling motion of cylindrical ob-
jectsdownaslope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
VI
JoseLuisJimenez,IgnacioCamposandJoseAntonioEduardoRoaNeriThesearch
of conceptual clarity in two problems in electromagnetism: a finite wire with constant
currentandtheconceptoftestcharge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Zdenka Koupilova, Dana Mandikova, Marie Snetinova and Zdenek Sabatka Elec-
tronicCollectionofSolvedPhysicsProblems–HowtoCreateYourOwnNewProblem 226
Tomaž Kranjc and Nada Razpet Using School Measurements to Rate the Quality of
theEnvironment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
YasuhiroKudoandEizoOhnoUsingMicrotribologytoTeachFriction . . . . . . . . . 236
RobertLambourneTheEuropeanPhysicalSocietyandEducationalPhysics . . . . . . 242
Cristina Mariani, Federico Corni and Hans U. Fuchs A didactic approach to and cur-
ricularperspectivesoftheconstructionoftheenergyconceptinprimaryschool . . . . . 248
JuliettaMirzoyanArmenianStudentPerformanceinScience: ResultsFromTIMSS . . 254
Arto Mutanen and Antti Rissanen Adjusting cadets’ reasoning skills with strategic
questioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
EizoOhnoAnalyticframeworksforstudyingscienceclassroomdiscoursewithdynamic
semanticapproach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Nicola Pizzolato, Onofrio Rosario Battaglia and Rosa Maria Sperandeo-Mineo An
InquiryBasedApproachtothestudyofenergyexchangebythermalradiation . . . . . 272
NadaRazpetandTomažKranjcAPhysicsStudentsisGettingReadyforVacations . . 278
Sabrina Rossi, Enrica Giordano and Nicoletta Lanciano The Parallel Globe and the
GloboLocalProject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
IvanRuddockPhysicalconceptsandmisconceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Zdenek Sabatka, Leos Dvorak and Vera Koudelkova Demonstration Experiments in
ElectricityandMagnetismforFutureTeachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Indexes
ListofAuthors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
VII

”Free Ideas”: Results from an innovative project for teacher development in
Calabria (Italy)
Assunta Bonanno 1, Giacomo Bozzo 1, Michele Camarca 1, Marisa Michelini 2,
Peppino Sapia 1
[email protected]
1 Physics Education Research Group, Physics Department - University of Calabria,
Italy and
2 Physics Education Research Unit, Department of Chemistry, Physics and
Environment - University of Udine, Italy

The paper illustrates the most important actions of a project granted by the administration of Calabria
(a region of Southern Italy) aimed to promote the dissemination of good teaching practices based on
the use of scientific laboratories and assisted by the proper utilization of new technologies. It has
involved 29 schools spread throughout the Region and operating in highly differentiated socio-
economic contexts. In the aim to bridge the gap between the educational research and the school
teaching practice, the learning paths supplied to students have planned the simultaneous presence in
the classroom of two teaching professionals having different roles and referred to as ”experimenter”
and ”trainer” teacher. The former was identified by the school manager among teachers in service,
while the latter was selected by a competition among people usually involved in educational research.
The teaching activities with students were directly conducted by the experimenter, supported
throughout the educational path by the trainer teacher. Analysis of project outcomes highlights some
peculiarities in the interaction dynamics between the two professionals, giving useful hints for the
design of effective training of teacher in service.

1. Introduction
There are many indicators testifying the steadily worsening in the level of scientific
knowledge possessed by the population in general and by young people in particular,
paradoxically in an epoch characterized by a wide diffusion of technological
equipment and devices. A lot of disaffection to science (Bonanno et al., 2009; Mazur
E., 1997; Sokoloff et al., 2007) is clearly reflected in the reduction of enrollment in
scientific faculties (McDermott L.C., 1990), more serious in Italy than in the rest of the
world. Among the various surveys conducted at the international level on student
scientific knowledge, the OCSE-PISA investigation, for youngsters in the age group
14-15 years, have raised some worry and concern in Italy since its results lie
significantly below the European average. The same surveys showed that large
inhomogeneities and differences exist in the country, so that while the northern
regions lie even above the European average, the southern regions remain far below
it, pulling the national average towards bad results above mentioned. Various
experiences conducted so far show that it is appropriate to privilege interventions at
the secondary school (in the age group 11-15 years) aimed to upgrade teaching
methodologies and to modernize laboratories and technological infrastructures
(Gervasio et al., 2008; Bonanno et al., 2011; Michelini M., 1992; Grayson &
McDermott; 1996; Sokoloff et al., 2007). For what is specifically concerning the latter,
in the recent past the Calabria administration had largely funded schools which
intended to improve their scientific laboratories and their ICT facilities, but the most
part of these new supplies have been left under-utilized because of the inadequate
1
preparation of involved teachers. Further investments were also devolved to teacher
training, since the educational innovation necessarily involves it (McDermott L.C.,
1990). However, the performed experiences have largely shown that the training
practice bulls down to a simple information when it is not accompanied by a collective
reflection, a careful revision and a creative application. Moreover, when the
educational opportunities (albeit for limitations in time and resources) are reduced to
a simple knowledge transfer, they leave a rooted and deep mistrust about the
possibility that what is learned can then be translated into the daily teaching practice
(also in consideration of personal operating realities often too different from those
outlined) (Michelini M., 2007). The project "Free Ideas", founded at the Faculty of
Sciences of University of Calabria by the regional administration, wanted to meet the
specific problem of spreading the use of existing facilities and, to do that, proposed a
teacher training model based on two positions: the experimenter-teacher (ET) 1 and
the trainer-teacher (TT). The former, identified and nominated by the school manager
among his in service teachers, was the professional designated to directly lead the
teaching activity in the classroom; while the latter was devoted to support the ET
especially from the methodological point of view. For this reason, the TT was
identified through a competitive procedure aimed to select candidates who had
gained good experience in laboratory activities, had built a good expertise in new
technologies and data acquisition, had familiarity with the educational research and
the innovative teaching actions. The two teacher figures were employed, after a brief
initial training, to conduct the learning path (chosen by the school and lasting 30
hours) in the classroom during extracurricular lessons and in co-presence. This
operational strategy has allowed to fully contextualize the intervention, making it
functional for the educational goals chosen and privileged by each involved institute.
The learning paths were targeted to 1360 students aged 11-16 (coming from 29
schools operating in deeply heterogeneous socio-economic contexts) and were
structured into three broad themes (Environment, Energy and Waves) involving the
cultural areas of mathematics, physics and natural sciences. All the activities were
planned in order to create operative conditions in which the students could participate
actively in the learning process (Bonanno et Al., 2009; Michelini & Cobal, 2002)
becoming finally able to think, to propose personal interpretations and to critically
reconsider contents. In the following sections, we describe the main actions of
intervention and the monitoring procedures. Then we illustrate some specific aims of
the conducted survey, the methodology implemented for the data analysis and finally
we conclude with the result discussion.

2. Main actions of intervention, monitoring strategies and research questions
The main actions of intervention can be classified into three different categories:
1. instruction of involved teachers (71 experimenter and 51 trainer),
2. delivering of learning path to students,
3. action monitoring.
Experimenter and trainer teachers, on average, possessed well diversified
competencies. In fact while the former was marked by a significant experience
gained in the field of traditional teaching and in a well-defined socio-economic

1 The in service teachers have been named as “experimenters” in the sense that they are deputed to
“experience” directly the new methodologies in their classrooms, making comparisons with respect to
the results obtained by their traditional teaching practices.
2