Physics Education

The Standard Model of particle physics is one of the most successful theories in physics and describes the fundamental interactions between elementary particles. It is encoded in a compact description, the so-called 'Lagrangian', which even fits on t-shirts and coffee mugs. This mathematical formulation, however, is complex and only rarely makes it into the physics classroom. Therefore, to support high school teachers in their challenging endeavour of introducing particle physics in the classroom, we provide a qualitative explanation of the terms of the Lagrangian and discuss their interpretation based on associated Feynman diagrams.

With the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), its potential implications for higher education have become a focal point of interest. This study delves into the capabilities of AI in physics education and offers actionable AI policy recommendations. Using openAI's flagship gpt-3.5-turbo large language model (LLM), we assessed its ability to answer 1337 physics exam questions spanning general certificate of secondary education (GCSE), A-Level, and introductory university curricula. We employed various AI prompting techniques: Zero Shot, in context learning, and confirmatory checking, which merges chain of thought reasoning with reflection. The proficiency of gpt-3.5-turbo varied across academic levels: it scored an average of 83.4% on GCSE, 63.8% on A-Level, and 37.4% on university-level questions, with an overall average of 59.9% using the most effective prompting technique. In a separate test, the LLM's accuracy on 5000 mathematical operations was found to be 45.2%. When evaluated as a marking tool, the LLM's concordance with human markers averaged at 50.8%, with notable inaccuracies in marking straightforward questions, like multiple-choice. Given these results, our recommendations underscore caution: while current LLMs can consistently perform well on physics questions at earlier educational stages, their efficacy diminishes with advanced content and complex calculations. LLM outputs often showcase novel methods not in the syllabus, excessive verbosity, and miscalculations in basic arithmetic. This suggests that at university, there's no substantial threat from LLMs for non-invigilated physics questions. However, given the LLMs' considerable proficiency in writing physics essays and coding abilities, non-invigilated examinations of these skills in physics are highly vulnerable to automated completion by LLMs. This vulnerability also extends to pysics questions pitched at lower academic levels. It is thus recommended that educators be transparent about LLM capabilities with their students, while emphasizing caution against overreliance on their output due to its tendency to sound plausible but be incorrect.

We have developed an activity using simulation hardware called the Quantum Teleportation & Superdense Coding toolkit. The toolkit contains classical electronic components, such as circuit boards and cables, that mimic the behaviour of quantum gates. The activity was designed to be accessible to upper-secondary school students who are not familiar with the mathematical formalism often used for teaching quantum mechanics. Groups of upper-secondary school students that have visited our university during outreach initiatives have participated in the activities, and we report on our experiences of introducing the toolkit for this group of students.

Changing acceleration and forces are part of the excitement of a roller coaster ride. According to Newton's second law, $\mathbf{F} = m\mathbf{a}$, every part of our body must be exposed to a force to accelerate. Since our bodies are not symmetric, the direction of the force matters, and must be accounted for by ride designers. An additional complication is that not all parts of the body accelerate in the same way when the acceleration is changing, i.e. when there is jerk. Softer parts of the body provide varying levels of damping, and different parts of the body have different frequency responses and different resonance frequencies that should be avoided or reduced by the roller coaster designer. This paper discusses the effect of acceleration, jerk, snap and vibration on the experience and safety of roller coaster rides, using authentic data from a dive coaster as an example.

There are currently more than 9000 active satellites orbiting the Earth (2024 ESA Space Environment Report www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/ESA_Space_Environment_Report_2024). Most of them are used for communications: radio, telephony, televisión and internet. Some of them help ships steer a safer course at sea. Others give us warnings about hurricanes and storms, and do the same for forest fires and icebergs. Some more have military applications. Many observation satellites take photographs of the Earth and then send them to a ground station for processing and dissemination. To take photographs it is first necessary to stabilize the satellite, avoiding oscillations or spins. The aim of this article is to show how to stabilize a satellite using the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Only basic knowledge of classical mechanics is necessary to understand how to achieve it. The applied method is especially relevant for the stabilization of small satellites, which are often used by colleges, universities and even some high schools for many different purposes. Pursuing this goal, we will use the motor with a coupled wheel from an old DVD drive, an angular rate sensor and a microcontroller. The experimental results are shown at the end of the article. Additionally there is a video that shows how stabilization takes place.

This article outlines a simplified approach to approximating the Chandrasekhar limit for white dwarf stars at a level appropriate for advanced high school students, beginning undergraduate students, and high school teachers. Using a combination of introductory quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of special relativity, the electron degeneracy pressure is calculated in the non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic limits. By combining the electron degeneracy energy with the gravitational energy for a constant density star, an approximation to the Chandrasekhar mass is derived.

We present an educational activity concerning the experimental investigation of the randomness of the coherer effect observed in granular conducting materials. For this purpose, we built different coherers that allowed us to easily measure their electric resistance. The dispersion of the experimental data have been characterized by calculating the mean, standard deviation, and relative standard deviation of the measured values. The histograms have been compared with the corresponding Gaussian distribution function. The proposed experimental activity can be easily carried out in classroom, at secondary and high school physics laboratory. It gives the opportunity to teach/learn concepts concerning topics of electromagnetic wave transmission and detection at an elementary level and also to contribute to increase student's engagements in physics.

Grading assessments is time-consuming and prone to human bias. Students may experience delays in receiving feedback that may not be tailored to their expectations or needs. Harnessing AI in education can be effective for grading undergraduate physics problems, enhancing the efficiency of undergraduate-level physics learning and teaching, and helping students understand concepts with the help of a constantly available tutor. This report devises a simple empirical procedure to investigate and quantify how well large language model (LLM) based AI chatbots can grade solutions to undergraduate physics problems in Classical Mechanics, Electromagnetic Theory and Quantum Mechanics, comparing humans against AI grading. The following LLMs were tested: Gemini 1.5 Pro, GPT-4, GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The results show AI grading is prone to mathematical errors and hallucinations, which render it less effective than human grading, but when given a mark scheme, there is substantial improvement in grading quality, which becomes closer to the level of human performance—promising for future AI implementation. Evidence indicates that the grading ability of LLM is correlated with its problem-solving ability. Through unsupervised clustering, it is shown that Classical Mechanics problems may be graded differently from other topics. The method developed can be applied to investigate AI grading performance in other STEM fields.

If a spherical magnet rolls down an aluminium incline, it induces eddy currents in the incline which produce an opposing force on the magnet. Experimental results are presented showing that the speed of the magnet down the incline varies by a factor of about six during each revolution of the magnet.

This study develops and implements a six-stage didactic sequence in modern and contemporary physics (MCP), focusing on photoluminescence, and evaluates its impact on student learning. The sequence follows the Three Pedagogical Moments framework and integrates practical experiments with theoretical discussions. The survey was conducted with 33 Brazilian high school students, and knowledge acquisition was assessed through diagnostic (pre-test) and summative (post-test) inquiries. The average correct answer rate increased from 31% to 89%, corresponding to a normalized gain of 0.85. These results indicate that the sequence enhances the comprehension of MCP concepts. Future work should refine and adapt this methodology for scalable application in diverse educational settings to support scientific literacy and STEM education.

Photographs captured by Apollo astronauts contain a lot of astronomical data that can be effectively extracted and mathematically analyzed when the images are integrated into a precise photogrammetric model. In this paper, we demonstrate that such a model can be used to present a wide range of tasks, effectively explaining numerous concepts in astronomy and mathematics to students at both the high school and university levels. Formulating and solving these tasks can enhance students' comprehension of fundamental astronomical concepts such as lunar orbital motion and libration, selenographic coordinates, and more importantly, foster the development of essential mathematical skills such as vector calculus, comprehension of spherical coordinates, photographic projections, and more.

It is known that blind and visually impaired (VI) students avoid choosing the Sciences and Technologies track in Secondary Education due to the inclusion challenges they faced in Basic Education, particularly the lack of adapted materials. To overcome this situation, investment in the development of tailored science materials is essential. This paper presents a study on the use of inclusive educational resources for sighted, blind, and VI students in a Portuguese middle school. The school integrates students with multiple disabilities alongside sighted students. The research focused on evaluating how 8th-grade students perceive the contents of sound waves using three inclusive educational resources. These resources were based on multisensory didactics—a tactile model, a slinky spring model, and a Swell paper model—and developed with inputs from VI students, blind students and teachers. These resources were tested with sighted students to assess their effectiveness in an inclusive setting. A questionnaire was administered to sighted students to analyse their perceptions of the inclusion of these materials in the classroom. The results revealed a high level of satisfaction, demonstrating that the multisensory approach enhanced students' understanding of their own learning. Based on the findings, the study suggests expanding the research to include more blind and VI students and additional Physics resources.

In the contribution we present an analysis of the main problems faced by students in the entrance exams in physics to study physics at the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University in Brno (MU). Every year, about 70 students from all over the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic are admitted to study physics and physics teaching at the Faculty of Science of MU (about a quarter of them are students from Slovak Republic). Therefore, the analysis of the results of the entrance examination in physics give a good overview of the level of physics teaching on Czech and Slovak (upper) secondary schools. (We believe that these experiences are similar elsewhere). We present here an example of a typical entrance exam assignment and process the results of solving open and closed problems from individual disciplines of secondary school physics and point out key problems leading to erroneous solutions. The assignment includes tasks from all eight basic areas of secondary school physics: Mechanics, Oscillations and waves, Thermics/thermodynamics and molecular physics, Electricity and magnetism, Optics, Physics of the microcosm, Astrophysics, Relativity. The aim of the assignment and subsequent analysis of the results of student solutions is to find out to what extent the physics education and textbooks at secondary schools contribute to the development of students physical thinking. The results of student solutions are commented for all monitored areas of secondary school physics, special attention is paid to mechanics and physics of the microcosm (disciplines from the beginning and end of secondary school studies, respectively). At the end of the paper, we comment on the possible causes of the not very great success of students in solving tasks from some areas of physics. In addition to our own experience, we also use the opinions of cooperating secondary school teachers and our first semester students.

This paper presents a new and successful methodology for determining the frequency effect on capacitive and inductive reactance in RC and RL series circuits. The key feature in our approach is the practical use of a smartphone as a signal generator and an oscilloscope in alternating current circuits. By generating and visualising the signal using free software applications, we could observe the capacitor's and the inductor's response to frequency variations between 0.1 and 5.0 kHz. The experimental data, analysed within the theoretical capacitive and inductive reactance model, shows excellent agreement with the expected values, instilling confidence in the reliability and feasibility of our methodology. This alignment between experimental and theoretical data not only underscores the potential use of smartphone technology in capacitive and inductive reactance studies but also highlights the practicality of our approach to experimental analysis in science and engineering.

It is known that blind and visually impaired (VI) students avoid choosing the Sciences and Technologies track in Secondary Education due to the inclusion challenges they faced in Basic Education, particularly the lack of adapted materials. To overcome this situation, investment in the development of tailored science materials is essential. This paper presents a study on the use of inclusive educational resources for sighted, blind, and VI students in a Portuguese middle school. The school integrates students with multiple disabilities alongside sighted students. The research focused on evaluating how 8th-grade students perceive the contents of sound waves using three inclusive educational resources. These resources were based on multisensory didactics—a tactile model, a slinky spring model, and a Swell paper model—and developed with inputs from VI students, blind students and teachers. These resources were tested with sighted students to assess their effectiveness in an inclusive setting. A questionnaire was administered to sighted students to analyse their perceptions of the inclusion of these materials in the classroom. The results revealed a high level of satisfaction, demonstrating that the multisensory approach enhanced students' understanding of their own learning. Based on the findings, the study suggests expanding the research to include more blind and VI students and additional Physics resources.

We present an educational activity concerning the experimental investigation of the randomness of the coherer effect observed in granular conducting materials. For this purpose, we built different coherers that allowed us to easily measure their electric resistance. The dispersion of the experimental data have been characterized by calculating the mean, standard deviation, and relative standard deviation of the measured values. The histograms have been compared with the corresponding Gaussian distribution function. The proposed experimental activity can be easily carried out in classroom, at secondary and high school physics laboratory. It gives the opportunity to teach/learn concepts concerning topics of electromagnetic wave transmission and detection at an elementary level and also to contribute to increase student's engagements in physics.

We have developed an activity using simulation hardware called the Quantum Teleportation & Superdense Coding toolkit. The toolkit contains classical electronic components, such as circuit boards and cables, that mimic the behaviour of quantum gates. The activity was designed to be accessible to upper-secondary school students who are not familiar with the mathematical formalism often used for teaching quantum mechanics. Groups of upper-secondary school students that have visited our university during outreach initiatives have participated in the activities, and we report on our experiences of introducing the toolkit for this group of students.

Remarkable advances in quantum information science and technology (QIST) have taken place in recent years. However, they have also been accompanied by widespread misinformation. This paper provides suggestions for how educators can help students at all levels and especially early learners including those at the pre-college and college levels learn key QIST concepts so that they are less likely to be misinformed, e.g. by online unvetted resources. We discuss findings from interviews with five college educators, who are quantum researchers, about their views on countering misinformation in QIST and provide suggestions for how educators can help their students learn QIST concepts so that they do not become misinformed.

If two spherical magnets approach each other on a horizontal surface they will be attracted and either collide head-on or end up spinning around each other. In the latter case, the initial linear momentum is converted to angular momentum.

There are currently more than 9000 active satellites orbiting the Earth (2024 ESA Space Environment Report www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/ESA_Space_Environment_Report_2024). Most of them are used for communications: radio, telephony, televisión and internet. Some of them help ships steer a safer course at sea. Others give us warnings about hurricanes and storms, and do the same for forest fires and icebergs. Some more have military applications. Many observation satellites take photographs of the Earth and then send them to a ground station for processing and dissemination. To take photographs it is first necessary to stabilize the satellite, avoiding oscillations or spins. The aim of this article is to show how to stabilize a satellite using the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Only basic knowledge of classical mechanics is necessary to understand how to achieve it. The applied method is especially relevant for the stabilization of small satellites, which are often used by colleges, universities and even some high schools for many different purposes. Pursuing this goal, we will use the motor with a coupled wheel from an old DVD drive, an angular rate sensor and a microcontroller. The experimental results are shown at the end of the article. Additionally there is a video that shows how stabilization takes place.

In order to extend the available sensors of smartphone experiments with cheap microcontroller-based external sensors, the smartphone experimentation app 'phyphox' has been extended with a generic Bluetooth Low Energy interface. Since its application requires an in-depth understanding of the underlying technologies, the direct use of that interface for educational purposes is limited. To avoid this difficulty, the functionality was encapsulated into an Arduino and MicroPython library. With these, also educators and learners with only rudimentary programming knowledge can integrate an app-based interface into microcontroller projects with only few lines of code. This opens a wide range of new learning opportunities, which are described exemplarily.

A pickleball is a hollow plastic ball with many holes in its surface. An interesting question is whether it floats or sinks in water.

Despite significant recent advances in applied nuclear physics (NP) research, the teaching of these topics in high schools has remained largely unchanged and often marginal. We have developed an educational pathway on NPs for high school students that combines active innovative methodologies including puzzles, questionnaires, inclusive teaching, and an inquiry-based learning approach. The content is presented differently from traditional textbooks and established practices. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, we implemented the activity in a final-year high school class (13th grade) composed of low-performing students. We present the outcomes of oral examinations, written tests, and satisfaction surveys.

If a spherical magnet is projected at high speed on a horizontal surface, it travels in a straight line path. A more surprising result is that it follows a random path when launched at low speed, due to its interaction with the earth's magnetic field.