Search results for " Teaching methods and strategies"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
An inquiry-based approach to Maxwell distribution: a case study with engineering students
2013
The concept of distribution is a fundamental component of statistical thinking. This paper describes a teaching approach for it that uses a specific activity related to the field of statistical mechanics. The concept of the velocity distribution of a particle system is dealt with using an inquiry-based approach involving an experimental examination of Maxwell’s distribution. Some outcomes of a teaching experiment held at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Palermo, Italy are described.
'School adopts an experiment': the photoluminescence in extra-virgin olive oil and in tonic water
2011
We report a laboratory activity, carried out along with high- and secondary-school students, that can be done to increase the interest of the young in scientific studies. Groups of selected students ‘adopted’ experiments at physics research laboratories, under the guidance of university researchers. Subsequently, the students demonstrated the experiments to the public at large during the annual science festival organized in Palermo by the association PalermoScienza, in collaboration with the University of Palermo. Experiments on the magnetic levitation of superconductors and on the photoluminescence of several substances were proposed. We discuss the experiment on photoluminescence as a cas…
An Inquiry Based Approach to the study of energy exchange by thermal radiation
2012
A teaching-learning sequence regarding the investigation of energy exchange by thermal radiation, conduction and convection is under development within the context of “Establish”, a FP7 European Project aimed at promoting and developing Inquiry Based Science Education in European Secondary Schools. Here we present some relevant laboratory activities of this inquiry-oriented teaching/learning sequence for secondary school level students (or even first-level university ones), aimed at investigating the physics of energy transmission by thermal radiation. In traditional laboratory work, the focus of students activities is mostly dedicated on verifying information previously transferred by the …