3rd International GIREP Seminar »Informal learning and Public Understanding of Physics«

5 – 9 September 2005, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Organized by: Groupe International sur l’Enseignement de la Physique (GIREP) European Physical Society (EPS) Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana The House of Experiments, Ljubljana

with the support of: Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS)

People in charge Gorazd Planinšič (University of Ljubljana) Mojca Čepič (University of Ljubljana) Miha Kos (The House of Experiments)

Book of abstracts

1 International Advisory Board Michele D’Anna, Ped. Inst. for Teacher Edu, Locarno, Switzerland Ton Ellermeijer, Amsterdam University, Netherlands Manfred Euler, University of Kiel, Germany Nils Hornstrup, Experimentarium, Denmark Marjan Hribar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Stanley Micklavzina, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA Kerry Parker, Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, New Zealand Michaele Renvillard, ECSITE, Belgium Rosa Maria Sperandeo, University of Palermo, Italy Gunnar Tibell, Uppsala University, Sweden Urbaan M Titulaer, Johannes Keppler University, Linz, Austria Christian Ucke, Tech. University Muenchen, Germany

International Organizing Committee Nils Hornstrup, Experimentarium, Denmark Rajka Jurdana Šepić, University of Rijeka, Croatia Robert Lambourne, Open University, UK Leopold Matelitsch, University of Graz, Austria Zofia Mayer Golob, Krakow University, Poland Marisa Michelini, University of Udine, Italy Josip Slisko, Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico David Sokoloff, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA Michael Vollmer, University of Appl. Sci, Brandenburg, Germany Richard Walton, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Local Organizing Committee Gorazd Planinšič, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana (Chairman) Mojca Čepič, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana (Co-chairman) Miha Kos, The House of Experiments, Slovenian science centre (Co-chairman)

Jure Bajc, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana Marko Budiša Ana B. Gostinčar, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana Riko Jerman, The House of Experiments Vasja Kožuh, ROKUS publishing house Samo Lasič, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana Andrej Likar, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana Danica Mati, Biotechnical School, Kranj Ales Mohorič, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana Seta Oblak Nada Razpet, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana Barbara Rovšek, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana Luka Vidic, The House of Experiments

This book is edited by Gorazd Planinšič, Aleš Mohorič, Samo Lasič and Seta Oblak

2 Preface to the 3rd International GIREP Seminar

GIREP is coming back to Ljubljana for the second time. In 1996 Ljubljana hosted GIREP conference with the title »New ways of teaching physics« right here at Faculty of Education. In year 2000 Prof. Marisa Michelini from University of Udine, Italy proposed a new type of GIREP activities, the Seminars that are organized in years between two Conferences. The first two Seminars took place in Udine, but today the 3rd International GIREP Seminar with the title »Informal learning and Public understanding of Physics« is opening its doors to you here in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Seminar is organized by GIREP, European Physical Society, the Faculty for mathematics and physics and Faculty of Education, both from University of Ljubljana and The House of Experiments, Slovenian hands-on science centre. The 3rd International GIREP Seminar, as the central international event in Slovenia during the World Year of Physics, was kindly supported also by the Slovenian Research Agency.

The head theme of this Seminar is somehow different from the themes in the past. This Seminar addresses not only the physics education at universities and schools but also informal learning of physics that goes on in the institutions such as science centres, museums but also at science fairs and festivals, at workshops and in other activities organized outside schools. What were the main reasons for bringing together »formal« and »informal« at the 3rd GIREP Seminar? Let me give only two major reasons: the urgent need for refreshment in physics in schools and common aim to increase public understanding of physics and science in general.

What can »formals« and »informals« offer to each other? Though they share many common goals, their knowledge and experiences are often complementary. Let’s start with »formals«. In the past forty years we have seen rapid development and growth in physics education research worldwide. A systematic analysis of students’ responses through the interviews, questioners and tests showed remarkable robustness in the way students (or any laymen) understand physical world. Following the thoughts of Jon Ogborn from United Kingdom, one of the leading characters in physics education in Europe, the strongest result to emerge from Physics Education Research (PER) has been the fundamental importance of the ideas students hold about the physical world, in deciding how they understand what they are taught. Though PER is daily bringing new important results, their effect on teaching practice is not yet satisfactory. In many cases the reason is the lack of suitable material: textbooks, teacher’s guides and demonstration experiments that are developed on the base of PER results and are at the same time attractive for tomorrow students.

On the other side there are science centres, as an example of institutions that from the beginning of their existence work primarily on questions how to present to the public the principles of nature in attractive way and how to show the close connection between the science and our everyday life. However, these institutions very rarely do

3 any systematic research on how much their visitors really learn from performing hands- on experiment, from attending science shows or hands on workshops and how much their preconceptions about natural phenomena change after leaving a science centre.

Obviously there is a lot we can learn from each other. We hope that the 3rd GIREP Seminar will be the opportunity for exchange of knowledge and experiences, for creating new ideas, new connections and new projects from which we will all benefit in future.

Allow me to devote my last thoughts to three Slovenians, that are unfortunately no longer with us, but who have the major merits for the high quality of the physics teaching in Slovenia. In sixties, Prof. Ivan Kuščer initiated and organized the first post graduate program in physics education in Slovenia. Prof. Anton Moljk, helped Kuščer in running this post graduate program and later in eighties initiated the first program for Continuing education of physics teachers. The program runs without interruptions until today. Prof. Janez Ferbar made the pioneering work in the field of early introduction of science in primary schools. Ferbar also endeavoured all his life to establish the physics as the fundamental subject in teaching primary science. As you know, these three segments, postgraduate education, continuing education programs and early introduction of science are in the focus of current European education programs. We are lucky that insights of these three persons were ahead of the time and we hope that the future reforms will not destroy what has been achieved.

Finally, we would like to thank the institutions and companies in Slovenia that also helped us to organize the 3rd GIREP Seminar: Slovenian Research Agency, Ljubljana - Civic Municipality, ROKUS Publishing house, LPP – Ljubljana public transport, National Istitute of Chemistry, Technical Museum of Slovenia and Žito Gorenjka.

Gorazd Planinšič Chairman of the 3rd GIREP Seminar

4 GENERAL INFORMATION

Home page of the 3rd International GIREP Seminar: http://www.girep2005.fmf.uni-lj.si/

Seminar location

Faculty of Education (Pedagoška fakulteta - PEF) Kardeljeva pl. 16 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia tel: +386 1 5892200 (just say “GIREP please”) fax:+386 1 5892233 (indicate “For GIREP”) e-mail: [email protected]

Some activities will also take place in the Science centre

The House of Experiments (Hiša eksperimentov- HE) Trubarjeva 39 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia tel: + 386 1 3006888 fax: +386 1 3006880 e-mail: [email protected]

5 Map of Faculty of Education (PEF)

6 7 8 Important locations in Ljubljana

PEF - FACULTY OF EDUCATION HOUSE OF EXPERIMENTS

CITY HOTEL TOWN HALL (HOTEL TOURIST) (MAGISTRAT) 9 REGISTRATION AND SECRETARIAT

Registration starts at 15:00 at Faculty of Education (Pedagoška fakulteta - PEF), Kardeljeva pl. 16 in Ljubljana. Registration fee includes:

• Four tickets for meals (should be in your seminar bag) • Seminar abstract book • Seminar bag with promotion material • Welcome party (Sunday evening) • Invitation for the reception in the Town Hall (Wednesday evening) • Conference trip (Thursday afternoon) • Refreshments • Free access to the House of Experiments during the seminar (see Visiting Science Centre for details)

Conference Dinner has to be paid separately. Tickets for the Conference Dinner and for the Conference trip (for accompanying persons) will be available at the Reception desk in the Secretariat of the Seminar until Wednesday morning.

Reception desk will be in Secretariat, room 026 (see map of PEF, ground floor). The Secretariat will also help you with the following services:

• On-site registration • Providing tickets for Seminar activities, such as Sunday Workshop and Monday Science show (both at the House of Experiments) • Providing tickets for Conference trip for accompanying persons • Providing tickets for Conference Dinner • Starting/renewing your GIREP membership and paying your fees • General information

The Secretariat will be opened every day during the Seminar at hours displayed on the door of the Secretariat.

10 SCIENCE SHOWS AND HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

PRE-SEMINAR DAYS

Saturday, the 3rd of September

Day of three Science Shows

Three one-hour Science-Shows will be presented at Science Centre, The House of experiments (HE). The first show will be performed by the members of The House of experiments. The other two shows will be performed by the well-known experts for physics demonstrations from USA: Chris Chiaverina, Brian Jones and Stanley Micklavzina.

Place: the House of Experiments, Trubarjeva 39 (City centre). Tickets: free for the pre-registered participants of GIREP Seminar (the list with names will be at the entrance of the HE). Due to space limitations in HE the number of visitors per show will be regulated by the HE staff. Thank you for understanding! Times: 12:00, 15:00, 17:00, duration 1 hour each.

Sunday, the 4th of September

Hands-on Workshop »Simple experiments«

Chris, Brian and Stan will help and guide the participants in making several simple experiments to be taken home.

Place: The House of Experiments, Trubarjeva 39 (City centre) Tickets: tickets at 10 EURO (to cover the cost of material) will be available for fully registered participants on Sunday September 4 from 15:00 on, at the registration desk on the Faculty of Education. Tickets can not be reserved in advance. Faculty of Education is about 5 km from the Science centre, where the workshop will take place. There will be a free bus that will leave from the Faculty of Education at 19:00 and drive you to the House of Experiments. NOTE: The number of persons is limited to 30! Time: 19:30 duration approx. 2 hours.

11 SEMINAR DAYS

Monday, the 5th of September – two parallel science shows:

“Atomic compilation”

Beniamino Danese (particle) and Fabrizio Logiurato (wave) will stupefy you with molecular connections, foggy laserpaths, electronical mosquitoes and much more.

Place: Faculty of Education, room 012 (ground floor) Tickets: free entrance Time: 19:00 (after the Welcome reception)

»The Magic of Physics - The Physics of Magic«

A well known expert for physics education David Sokoloff from USA will perform a series of simple demonstrations, designed to introduce students at the college or high school level to basic concepts of geometrical and physical optics.

Place: The House of Experiments, Trubarjeva 39 (City centre) Tickets: free tickets will be available at the registration desk on the Faculty of Education. NOTE: The number of persons is limited to 50! There will be a free bus that will leave from the Faculty of Education at 19:00 and drive you to the House of Experiments. Time: 19:30, duration approx. 1 hour

Tuesday, the 6th of September

»Physics Nocturno«

This will be one hour Science show, full of exciting experiments, performed by Chris, Brian and Stan for all participants of the GIREP Seminar.

Place: Faculty of Education Tickets: free entrance for all participants of GIREP Seminar Time: 19:00, duration approx. 1 hour

12 Thursday, the 8th of September

Paul Doherty, world known expert for physics exhibits and demo-shows from the famous Exploratorium, San Francisco will share with us some of his ideas, during the Conference Dinner in Bistra Castle.

VISITING SCIENCE CENTRE, THE HOUSE OF EXPERIMENTS

All participants can visit HE for free during the Seminar time by presenting the Seminar badge at the entrance. However, please have in mind that due to space limitations in HE the number of visitors may be regulated by the HE staff. Thank you for understanding! The opening hours of HE during the Seminar are as follows:

SU 4.9. 15:00 – 19:00 MO 5.9. closed TU 6.9. – TH 8.9. 9:00 – 14:00 FR 9.9. 10:00 – 13:00

EXHIBITIONS

INTERREGIONAL PROJECT EXHIBITION

INTERREG III A, Italia – Slovenia 2000/06: “Physics Education innovative materials to support pre- and in-service teacher training”, People in charge: Marisa Michelini, University of Udine, Italy and Gorazd Planinšič, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (see abstract at the end of this book) Room: P019

ON THE TRACK TO MODERN PHYSICS

The exhibition shows the work done within “Physics is Fun”, 6th EU programme, “Science and Society”. The exhibition is the result of cooperative work from the following institutions:

Pomeranian Pedagogical Academy, Slupsk, Poland Trento University, Italy École Centrale Paris “Foton”, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

13 “Ambernet”, Warsaw, Poland “Soliton”, Sopot, Poland “Dudka Design”, Milano, Italy People in charge: Grzegorz Karwasz Room: 014

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL EVENTS

Wednesday, the 7th of September at 20:00 - Reception in Town Hall

All participants are invited to attend the Reception in the Town Hall (also called Magistrat) on Wednesday evening. You will find the invitations in your seminar bags. The Reception in the Town Hall is kindly donated by the mayoress of Ljubljana, Ms. Danica Simšič. During the reception in the Town Hall the participants will also have opportunity to visit the newly opened exhibition of the works of Slovenian sculptor.

Thursday, the 8th of September - Trip to Škocjan Caves and Conference Dinner

On Thursday afternoon there will be organized a trip to Škocjan Caves for all the participants. Škocjan Caves belongs to one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. Buses will leave from PEF after lunch. We recommend good walking shoes that do not slip. Walking through the caves takes approximately 90 minutes.

After the visit to the caves the buses will take us to the Bistra Castle where the Conference Dinner will be arranged. Those participants that decide not to book for the Conference dinner will be driven back to the PEF. The rest will have opportunity to visit the exhibition of Tito’s cars (more than 15 are on display) and enjoy the Slovenian cuisine. The return to Ljubljana is planed in the late evening hours. Tickets for the Conference Dinner will be available at the Reception desk in the Secretariat of the Seminar until Wednesday morning.

TRANSPORT IN LJUBLJANA

Public transport in Ljubljana is based on city buses operated by the company LPP. Here is the short price list of their service: Single trip - cash (exact fair) 300 SIT Single trip – tokens 190 SIT One day ticket 900 SIT

Ask for details in the Seminar secretariat. A taxi fair between PEF and city centre should not exceed 1500 SIT.

14 LUNCHES

All the participants are eligible to eat lunch in the cafeteria (see the map of PEF). The lunches are included in your registration fee. You will be asked to hand in the ticket for each meal (the tickets are in your seminar bag). The drinks are not included in the prepaid meals and have to be paid at the cashier.

INTERNET

Access to Internet will be provided in computer room P020 in basement.

MONEY

All payments in Slovenia are done in Slovenian tolars (SIT). The approximate conversions between some currencies are listed below. The exchange rates are stable and the differences between the buying and selling rates for the listed currencies are not more than few percents.

1 EUR 240 SIT 1 USD 197 SIT 1 GBP 353 SIT 1 CHF 155 SIT

15 SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

GENERAL AND PLENARY TALKS

All General talks speakers have 45 minutes to present their work and for answering the questions from the audience. The Panel talk speakers have 15 minutes time (including time for questions and answers) to present their work. Video projectors, computers (MS Windows OS) and overhead projectors will be available in all lecture rooms.

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

The authors are asked to put their posters on display not later than by Tuesday afternoon at 15:00. The poster dimensions should be within the measures 90 cm (width) x 110 cm (height). Ask for the location of posters at the Reception desk. All poster presenters will be invited to give quick introduction of their posters at the Poster session (allowing 2 min, 2 transparencies per poster; no computer presentations).

DISCUSSION WORKSHOPS

The Discussion Workshops are the core of the Seminar.

IMPORTANT NOTE: At the registration you will be asked to sign in for one of the Discussion Workshops, according to your interest. Please, prepare your second alternative in case your favourite Worksop will be full.

It is expected that the participants will remain in the chosen workshop until the end of the Seminar. Your contribution to the workshop can only be effective if you participate in the discussion actively and help workshop leaders and reporters in shaping the final outcomes.

Here is the list of Discussion Workshops (DW), names of the people that run them and the locations of the rooms:

16 DW A: Science centres, schools and Universities The DW will be focused on several aspects of cooperation between the institutions of formal and informal education (Linking formal and informal contexts, Science centers and physics education research, Teachers’ training in science centers or in non-formal environment etc.)

Leader: Katarina Teplanova Reporter: Richard Walton Room: P006

DW B Learning physics from the experiments The DW will be focused on several aspects of hands-on experiments, physics demonstration experiments and science shows.

Leader: Michael Vollmer Reporter: Chris Chiaverina Room: P038

DW C Gaps and bridges in communicating physics to the public The DW will be focused on several aspects of communicating physics to the public, including the role of media, relevance of the physics to our everday lifes, ethics in science and the use of ICT.

Leader: Zofia Meyer Golab Reporter: Ian Lawrence Room: P037

DW D New teaching strategies and learning methods The DW will be focused on several aspects of applying formal and informal contexts in creating new materials and methods for teaching physics

Leader: Michele D’Anna Reporter: Laurence Rogers Room: 012 (ground floor)

17 SUBMISSION OF THE PAPERS FOR THE PROCEEDINGS

A selected number of contributions will be published after the refereeing procedure in a book or as a CD, depending on the subsidies. All the participants are kindly invited to electronically submit their papers as the Microsoft Word documents, following the instruction that will appear on the Seminar homepage.

Note: Submission of the full papers will be possible after 30 September 2005. We will inform you about the starting of the paper submission by email.

18 [212] [212] [212] Coffee Closing GT10 B FRI 9 Sidharth Outcomes Outcomes DW D [012] [P038] DW C [P037] Comm. GIREP meeting Comm. GIREP meeting [212] Lunch Coffee THU 8 [cafeteria] Heritage site GT8 J Strnad GT9 L Dvorak GT9 L Conference trip Conference DW B [P038] Conference dinner Conference [departure from PEF] [P006] Skocjan Caves, UNESCO World World Skocjan Caves, UNESCO [Technical Museum, Bistra Castle] [Technical DW A [P006] Preparation for conclusions DW (Lead+Rep) for Preparation DW conclus. DW D [012] DW D [012] DW C [P037] DW C [P037] [212] [212] [212] [212] Lunch Coffee Coffee . See map of PEF for locations. [cafeteria] Town Hall Town WED 7 GT7 R Walton GT7 R GT6 P Doherty GT6 P GT5 U Titulaer GT5 U Reception in the Numbers in bracket indicate room numbers. »P« front of the number means DW B [P038] DW B [P038] New book (GIREP) (11:45) Instructions for DW (11:45) Note: basement DW A [P006] DW A [P006] [012] [012]

Panel Session C Panel Session D (incl. [hall] [hall] [212] Lunch Coffee TUE 6 [cafeteria] Science show Phys.Nocturno GT4 M Rishpon [212] [212] GT3 R Lambourne Panel Session B Panel Session A POSTER Review and presentation snacks & soft drinks)

[012] [012] Panel Session D Panel Session C Atomic Compi- lation [012] [212] [212] Lunch Coffee Coffee M Euler [cafeteria] MON 5 Opening talk: GT1 M Michelini [212] [212] Opening ceremony GT2 HJ Schlichting 3RD GIREP Seminar PROGRAM, 5-9 September 2005, Ljubljana, Slovenia PROGRAM, 5-9 September Seminar 3RD GIREP Panel Session A Panel Session B ______Magic* of Physics [026] SUN 4 GT = General talk GT Workshop = Discussion DW PEF = Faculty of Education The House of Experiments * Science centre Registrati- on Welcome party Hands* On-WS (fee) 9:00-9:30 9:30-10:00 10:00-10:30 10:30-11:00 11:00-11:30 11:30-12:00 12:00-12:30 12:30-13:00 13:00-13:30 13:30-14:00 14:00-14:30 14:30-15:00 15:00-15:30 15:30-16:00 16:00-16:30 16:30-17:00 17:00-17:30 17:30-18:00 18:00-18:30 18:30-19:00 19:00-19:30 19:30-20:00 20:00-20:30 20:30- Legend:

19 Programme of the 3rd international GIREP seminar 2005

5-9 September 2005, Ljubljana, Slovenia

MONDAY 5.9.

GENERAL TALKS

MO 9:00 – 10:00, Opening ceremony, Room: 212

MO 10:15 – 11:00, Opening talk, Room: 212

HANDS-ON SCIENCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING: CHALLENGES AND POTENTIALS, Manfred Euler, President of GIREP, Germany

MO 11:30 – 13:00, Ch: U Titulaer, Room: 212

11:30 – 12:15 THE LEARNING CHALLENGE: A BRIDGE BETWEEN EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE Marisa Michelini, Dept. of Physics, Univ. Udine, Italia

12:15 – 13:00 REFLECTIONS ON REFLECTION - FROM OPTICAL EVERYDAY LIFE PHENOMENA TO PHYSICAL AWARENESS Hans-Joachim Schlichting, Westf. Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster, Germany

PANEL TALKS A

MO 14:30 – 16:30, Ch: R J Šepić, Room: 212

14:30 – 14:45 EDUCATIONAL GAMES IN PHYSICS Viera Biznarova, Schola Ludus, Faculty of mathematics, physics and, Slovakia

14:45 – 15:00 TOWARDS A NEW SCIENCE MUSEUM IN TRENTO: DEVELOPING NEW TOOLS AND METHODS TO COMBINE NATURALISTIC AND HARD SCIENCE Neva Capra, Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Italy, et al.

15:00 – 15:15 ZNANSTVENI KRNEKI - SCIENCE WHATEVER Luka Vidic, Ustanova Hiša eksperimentov, Slovenia, et al.

15:15 – 15:30 ATOMIC PHYSICS FOR PUPILS: AN HANDS-ON LAB Beniamino Danese, Università di Trento - Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy, et al.

20 15:30 – 15:45 “ENLIGHTENING THE MATTER”: A PHYSICS SHOW FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL Marco Giliberti, Physics Department University of Milano, Italy, et al.

15:45 – 16:00 I GIOCHI DI EINSTEIN - PLAYING WITH EINSTEIN Roberta Guardini, Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Italy, et al.

16:00 – 16:15 PHYSICS DEMONSTRATIONS ORGANIZED FOR BASIC AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS BY INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa, Poland Marian Głowacki, Jan Długosz University, Poland, et al.

16:15 – 16:30 INTERDISCIPLINARY DAYS: LEARNING BY EMOTIONS Loredana Sabaz, Ginnasio Gian Rinaldo Carli Koper-Capodistria, Slovenia

PANEL TALKS D

MO: 14:30 – 16:30 Ch: S Oblak, Room: 012

14:30 – 14:45 COGNITIVE LABORATORY: GRAVITY AND FREE-FALL FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL SITUATIONS Francesca Bradamante, Physics Department of University of Udine, Italy, et al.

14:45 – 15:00 TRADITIONAL EDUCATION OR CONSTRUCTIVISM? TRANSFORMATION OF THE CZECH CURRICULUM OF PHYSICS Libor Koníček, University of Ostrava, Czech republic, et al.

15:00 – 15:15 A TITRATION EXPERIMENT AS AN EXAMPLE FOR A COORDINATED APPROACH IN SCIENCE TEACHING AT HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL Michele D’Anna, Alta Scuola Pedagogica, Switzerland, et al.

15:15 – 15:30 CHILDREN NAIVE IDEAS/REASONING ON LOGIC CIRCUITS IN AN INFORMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Italo Testa, Università degli Studi di Udine & Dipartimento Scienze Fisiche, Napoli, Italy, et al.

15:30 – 15:45 THE FORCE BETWEEN ELECTRIC CHARGES AND A NEW APPROACH TO THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY Kjell Prytz, University of Gavle, Sweden

15:45 – 16:00 GIFTED KIDS AND MODELING PHYSICAL PHENOMENA Stanislav Zelenda, Charles University in Prague Faculty of, CZ

16:00 – 16:15 PHYSICS WITHOUT FORMULAE Azita Seied Fadaei, Education organization, Iran

21 16:15 – 16:30 NEW ABOARDING METHODS FOR THE STUDY OF EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE Liliana-Violeta Constantin, National College Elena Cuza, Romania, et al.

PANEL TALKS B

MO 17:00 – 19:00, Ch: C O’Sullivan, Room: 212

17:00 – 17:15 EINSTEIN’S BOX Giorgio Haeusermann, Alta Scuola Pedagogica, Switzerland

17:15 – 17:30 GENERALISING THE EFFICIENCY OF ELECTRIC DEVICES Slavko Kocijančič, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Slovenia, et al.

17:30 – 17:45 IN THE SEARCH OF THE HIDDEN HARMONY Alexander Kazachkov, Mathematics and Science Teaching Institute, University of Northern Colorado, et al.

17:45 – 18:00 COUPLED MAGNETIC PENDULA AND OTHER HANDS-ON EXPERIMENTS WITH “GEOMAG” TOYS D. Allasia, University of Torino, Italy, et al.

18:00 – 18:15 DIGITAL RECORDING AND ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL EXPERIMENTS Jan Koupil, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, et al.

18:15 – 18:30 HANDS-ON SENSORS FOR THE EXPLORATION OF LIGHT POLARIZATION Alberto Stefanel, Physics Dep. University of Udine, Italy, et al.

18:30 – 18:45 FROM THE INTERNET TO CLASSROOMS AND A WORKSHOP TO THE FINAL PRODUCT Valentin Peternel, Srednja šola tehniških strok Šiška, Slovenia

PANEL TALKS C

MO 17:00 – 19:00, Ch: L Mathelitsch, Room: 012

17:00 – 17:15 ON THE TRACK OF MODERN PHYSICS Grzegorz Karwasz, Faculty of Engineering, Trento University - Italy, et al.

17:15 – 17:30 MACH´S POPULAR LECTURES ABOUT ACOUSTICS Leopold Mathelitsch, Inst. of Physics, Univ. Graz, Austria, Austria

17:30 – 17:45 PHYSICS IN THE MEDIA – OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRAINING SCIENTIFIC THINKING Gesche Pospiech, TU Dresden, Germany

22 17:45 – 18:00 A LESSON IN THE FORM OF A SPECTACLE Corrado Agnes, Politecnico, Italy

18:00 – 18:15 A LOCAL TV SHOW - A BRIDGE BETWEEN SCHOOL AND PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF PHYSICS Miran Tratnik, Šolski center Nova Gorica, Slovenia

18:15 – 18:30 SUPERCOMET 2 – TESTING AND EVALUATION OF MATERIALS Vegard Engstrøm, Simplicatus AS, Trondheim

18:30 – 18:45 LEARNING TO TEACH PHYSICS FROM LESSONS OF MARIA SKLODOWSKA-CURIE Jozefina Turlo, Education of Physics Laboratory, Nicolaus, Poland, et al.

TUESDAY 6.9.

GENERAL TALKS

TU 9:00 – 10:30, Ch: T Ellermeijer, Room: 212

9:00 – 9:45 INFORMAL EDUCATION IN LIFELONG LEARNING, OUTREACH AND STUDENT RECRUITMENT Robert Lambourne, Open University, UK

9:45 – 10:30 LEARNING PHYSICS WITH EXHIBITS IN AN OUTDOOR SCIENCE CENTER Moshe Rishpon, Clore Garden of Science, Israel

PANEL TALKS B

TU 11:00 – 13:00, Ch: B Jones, Room: 212

11:00 – 11:15 PHYSICS AT THE AMUSEMENT PARK OF MIRABILANDIA Barbara Pecori, Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy, et al.

11:15 – 11:30 HANDS-ON EXPERIMENTS ON MAGNETISM AND SUPERCONDUCTIVITY Grzegorz Karwasz, Physics Institute, Pomeranian Pedagogical, Poland, et al. 11:30 – 11:45 IS BROWN A COLOUR? Matej Erjavec, Gimnazija Jesenice, Slovenija, et al.

11:45 – 12:00 LOCOMOTION BY BLOWING INTO THE SAIL OF YOUR OWN SAILBOAT: MUENCHHAUSEN STORY OR REAL PHYSICS? Michael Vollmer, University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg, Germany, et al.

23 12:00 – 12:15 LASER LIGHT THROUGH THE FOG Fabrizio Logiurato, Università di Trento - Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy, et al.

12:15 – 12:30 SELF CONTAINED PHYSICS DEMONSTRATIONS AND MIND TEASER KIT Wim Peeters, University of Antwerp, Belgium, et al.

12:30 – 12:45 EDUCATIONAL ICT TOOLS TO IMPROVE WAVE PHYSICS UNDERSTANDING Giovanni Tarantino, Dip. di Fisica e Tecnologie Relative, Università, Italy, et al.

12:45 – 13:00 CONVECTION IN LIQUIDS ― SOME ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS Colm O’Sullivan, National University of Ireland, Cork, Ireland, et al.

PANEL TALKS C

TU 11:00 – 13:00, Ch: R M Sperandeo, Room: 012

11:00 – 11:15 ETHICS IN PHYSICS COMMUNICATION Zofia Golab-Meyer, Jagellonian University, Poland

11:15 – 11:30 INTERACTIVE LIVING AND VITAL SCIENCE Pietro Cerreta, Associazione ScienzaViva, Italia, et al.

11:30 – 11:45 THE STUDY OF PHYSICS FOR NON-PHYSICISTS Tomaž Kranjc, Faculty of Education, Univesity of Ljubljana, Slovenia

11:45 – 12:00 BUSES, PHYSICS AND DIALOGUE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY Nico Pitrelli, ICS - Innovations in Communication of Science,, Italy, et al.

12:00 – 12:15 STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND SCIENTISTS JOIN INQUIRY-BASED PHYSICS TEACHING/LEARNING PROJECTS Vera Bojović, Institute for Education Development, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

12:15 – 12:30 SOCIAL CHANGES WITH PHYSICS WORKSHOPS Roberto Sayavedra-Soto, IPN, Mexico

12:30 – 12:45 RESEARCH PATHS IN PHYSICS: CAN WE EXHIBIT THEM? Barbara Pecori, Dipartimento di Fisica, Italy, et al.

24 PANEL TALKS A

TU 14:30 – 17:00, Ch: D Sokoloff, Room: 212

14:30 – 14:45 PHYSICS COMMUNICATION THROUGH SCIENCE FESTIVAL- FROM BOTTOM TO THE TOP OF THE EDUCATIONAL PYRAMID Rajka Jurdana-Šepic, Physics department, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Croatia, et al.

14:45 – 15:00 IS SCIENCE FOR ME? ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCIENCE IN MUSEUMS VISITORS Paola Rodari, ICS - Innovations in the Communication of, Italy, et al.

15:00 – 15:15 POPULARIZATION OF SCIENCE THROUGH SCIENTIFIC FAIRS AND SCIENCE MUSEUM IN EL SALVADOR William Mejía, Universidad de El Salvador, El Salvador

15:15 – 15:30 SCIENCE CENTERS AND TEACHER TRAINING: WHAT WORKS? David Sokoloff, University of Oregon, USA

15:30 – 15:45 BETA PARTNERS’ PROJECT Cor de Beurs, AMSTEL Insitute, Netherlands

15:45 – 16:00 EXPERIENCES IN BUILDING A SMALL »HANDS-ON« SCIENCE CENTRE FROM SCRATCH Miha Kos, Hiša Eksperimentov, Slovenia, et al

16:00 – 16:15 COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE SCIENCE CENTER AND UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES Gorazd Planinšič, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, et al

16:15 – 16:30 AS FAST AS LIGHTNING, SCIENCE SHOW Orest Jarh, Technical Museum of Slovenia, Slovenia

PANEL TALKS D

TU: 14:30 – 17:00 Ch: M Michelini, Room: 012

14:30 – 14:45 FORMAL AND INFORMAL ACTIVITIES FOR DIDACTIC PLANNING ON SIMPLE MACHINES USING A WEB INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING Federico Corni, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia - Physics, Italy, et al.

14:45 – 15:00 COMPUTER SIMULATIONS AND MODELLING – COMPARING AND CONTRASTING PEDAGOGICAL OBJECTIVES Laurence Rogers, University of Leicester, England

25 15:00 – 15:15 INFORMAL TRAINING OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ON MAGNETIC PHENOMENA Alberto Stefanel, Physics Dep. University of Udine, Italy, et al.

15:15 – 15:30 DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS OF WHAT MAKES AIRPLANES FLIGHT Giovanni Tarantino, Physics Education Research Unit, University of Udine, Italy

15:30 – 15:45 THE DANGER OF MISREPRESENTATIONS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION John Moore, Mathematics and Science Teaching Institute, University of Northern Colorado, et al.

15:45 – 16:00 TEACHING ERROR THEORY USING VIRTUAL EXPERIMENTS Srdjan Verbic, Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation, Serbia and Montenegro

16:00 – 16:15 EVALUATION OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY PROGRAMME Erika Mechlova, University of Ostrava, CZ, et al.

POSTERS PRESENTATIONS (Note: the numbers in front of the poster titles indicate the numbers on the poster stands!)

TU 17:00 – 19:00, Ch: M Čepič, Room: entrance hall

WEDNESDAY 7.9.

GENERAL TALKS

WE 9:00 – 10:30, 11:00 – 11:45, Ch: C Ucke, Room: 212

9:00 – 9:45 INVOLVING STUDENTS IN OUTREACH ACTIVITIES: THE WILHELM MACKE AWARD Urbaan Titulaer, M., Johannes Kepler University, Austria

9:45 – 10:30 LEARNING SCIENCE BY DOING SCIENCE WITH SIMPLE MATERIALS Paul Doherty, Exploratorium, USA

11:00 – 11:45 BRIDGING THE GAP: TRAINING SCIENCE TEACHERS IN SCIENCE MUSEUMS AND OTHER INFORMAL SETTINGS Richard Walton, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

26 DISCUSSION WORKSHOPS

14:30 – 16:30 DISCUSSION WORKSHOPS A, B, C, D

17:00 – 19:00 DISCUSSION WORKSHOPS A, B, C, D

THURSDAY 8.9.

GENERAL TALKS

TH 9:00 – 10:30, Ch: J Rinaudo, Room: 212

9:00 – 9:45 TEACHING AND COMMUNICATING PHYSICS Janez Strnad, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

9:45 – 10:30 INFORMAL PHYSICS EDUCATION AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING - SOME EXAMPLES AND EXPERIENCES Leos Dvorak, Charles University, Czech rep.

DISCUSSION WORKSHOPS

11:00 – 13:00 DISCUSSION WORKSHOPS A, B, C, D

FRIDAY 9.9.

GENERAL TALKS

FR 9:00 – 9:45, Ch: G Planinšič, Room: 212

9:00 – 9:45 REVIVING FLAGGING SCIENCES Burra Sidharth, B.M.Birla Science Centre, India

9:45 – 12:00 Outcomes of the Seminar: the reports by DW reporters

27 LIST OF POSTERS

NOTE: THE NUMBERS IN FRONT OF THE POSTER TITLES INDICATE THE NUMBERS ON THE POSTER STANDS!

SESSION A Science centres, schools and Universities

1. AN EXAMPLE OF A SYNERGETIC CONNECTION BETWEEN INFORMAL AND FORMAL TEACHING Max Bazovsky, Schola Ludus, Slovakia

2. KINDERGARTEN OF PHYSICS – WHERE SCIENCE MEETS YOUTH Zofia Golab-Meyer, Jagellonian University, Poland, et al.

3. A UNIQUE EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME – VENUS TRANSIT 2004 Sonja Jejčič, Technical school centre of Nova Gorica, Slovenia

4. A MATERIALS SCIENCE DIDACTIC UNIT COMBINING FORMAL AND INFORMAL LEARNING F.Minosso, Liceo Scientifico “G. Bruno”, Venezia, Italy, et al.

5. PHYSICS RADIATION AND HEALTH Lucília Maria P. T. Santos, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, et al.

6. CULTURAL HISTORY OF PHYSICS IN A SUBJECTIVE WAY Dorothy Sebestyen, Budapest Polytechnic, KVK, VEI, Hungary

7. WHEN THE INFORMAL BECOMES FORMAL ENOUGH Magdalena Staszel, Warsaw University, Faculty of Physics, Division, Poland

8. A MODERN EXHIBITION OF SCIENCE FOR NEW UNDERSTANDING OF SCHOOL PHYSICS Katarina Teplanova, Schola Ludus, Faculty of, Slovakia

SESSION B Learning physics from the experiments

9. QUANTIFICATION OF WATER COLOUR EFFECTS Danica Mati Djuraki, Biotechnical School Kranj, Slovenia

10. VIRTUAL AND HANDS-ON EXPERIMENTS IN STATIC – BALANCE PROPERTIES OF ASYMMETRICAL BODIES Tetyana Ignatova, B.Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics, Ukraine, et al.

11. ACTIVE TEACHING METHODS IN PHYSICS CLASSES Jasmina Jančič, Gimnazija Ormoz, Slovenija

28 12. MODEL OF A HUMAN EYE Nina Jereb, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Slovenia

13. LET’S PLAY SOUNDS Anna Kamińska, Pomeranian Pedagogical Academy, Poland

14. PINK GLASSES Andrzej Krzysztofowicz, Institute of Physics, Pomeranian Pedagogical, Poland, et al.

15. FRICTION HOLDING THE CLIMBER: AN EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLE FROM PHYSICS IN SPORTS Samo Lasic, Grega Poljšak, Faculty for mathematics and physics, Ljubljana, Slovenia, et al.

16. SIMPLE EXPLANATION FOR THE PUBLIC OF SPINNING OBJECTS ON A TABLE Per-Olof Nilsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, et al.

17. WOOD HEATING AND COGENERATION Rajko Peternel, Gimnazija Jesenice, Slovenija

18. MEASURING DENSITY OF HEAT FLOW RATE Valentin Peternel, Srednja šola tehniških strok Šiška, Slovenia

19. PHYSICS IN FUNNELS Tomasz Wróblewski, Institute of Physics, Pomeranian Pedagogical, Poland, et al.

20. AQUA LAND Tomaž Kušar, Gregor Udovč, Faculty of Education, Ljubljana, Slovenia

21. VACUUM BAZOOKA - EXTENDED Aleš Mohorič, Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, Ljubljana, Slovenia

SESSION C Gaps and bridges in communicating physics to the public

22. FORMAL AND INFORMAL ASPECTS OF PHYSICS EDUCATION IN A STUDENTS STAGE IN AN ALPINE HOSTEL A. Audrito, Liceo Scientifico Curie, Pinerolo, Italy, et al.

23. ONLINE COURSES FOR TEACHERS AND PUPILS IN SUPERCOMET2 PROJECT Carmen Holotescu, Timsoft Ltd, Romania

24. USING HISTORICAL MONUMENTS FOR INFORMAL TEACHING-LEARNING PHYSICS Rouhollah Khalili Boroujeni, organization for educational research and, Iran

25. PUBLIC RELATION AND PHYSICS EDUCATION Katalin Papp, University of Szeged, Department of Experimental, Hungary, et al.

29 26. GROUP DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIMEDIA TRAINING COURSES BY STUDENTS AS A WAY OF ENHANCING INTEREST IN LEARNING PHYSICS Oleg Syurin, Gymnasium #14, Kharkov, Ukraine, et al.

27. SCIENCE ON THE BUS Luka Vidic, Ustanova Hiša eksperimentov, Slovenia, et al.

28. MOVIES AND PHYSICS Marko Budiša, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics

SESSION D New teaching strategies and learning methods

29. CAN PHYSICS BECOME A SOURCE OF PASSION AND DELIGHT? Liliana-Violeta Constantin, National College Elena Cuza, Romania, et al.

30. SCIENCES STUDY BASED ON RECIPROCAL COMPLETION BETWEEN REAL AND VIRTUAL EXPERIMENT Liliana-Violeta Constantin, National College Elena Cuza, Romania, et al.

31. APTITUDE TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING OF PHYSICS CONTENT WITH RESPECT TO THE LEVEL OF ABSTRACTNESS OF ITS DESCRIPTION Tomaž Kranjc, Faculty of Education, Univesity of Ljubljana, Slovenia

32. WEB-BASED MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION “SOLID STATE” Nadezhda Nancheva, University of Rousse, Bulgaria, et al.

33. IMPROVING ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE BY LEARNING OUTDOORS Marjanca Šteblaj, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, et al.

30 ABSTRACTS - General Talks

Opening talk Monday

HANDS-ON SCIENCE AND INFORMAL LEARNING: CHALLENGES AND POTENTIALS

Manfred Euler, president of GIREP Leibniz-Institute for Science Education (IPN), Kiel

The formal system of science education is challenged by the decline of students’ interest in science. Improving science literacy and promoting more adequate views of research and development has been identified as a major aim in many industrialized countries. In addition to improving the formal education system, a great potential is seen in initiatives that offer additional out-of-school learning opportunities in more informal settings. As an example, in Germany, a great number of initiatives from universities, research institutes and industry have established science labs in the past in order to raise student’s interest in science subjects and to counteract the imminent lack of scientists and engineers (see http://www.lernort-labor.de for more details). These so-called school-labs work on site and offer lab courses to complete classes or to individual students. School students have the opportunity to carry out single experiments or experimental projects. Lab work brings them in contact with scientists and with authentic research, carried out in the respective institutes. Thus, the labs provide a unique environment for informal and hands-on learning. Additionally, students get authentic, first-hand information on the nature of science, and on research and development processes. The survey presents an overview of new theoretical developments on hands-on learning and discusses the results of empirical studies that demonstrate the potential of the labs to enhance students’ interest and to create lasting effects even from a single visit to a lab. Especially, school-labs have a positive effect on girls’ attitudes towards science and technology. Moreover, it is shown that “cognitive challenge” and “authenticity” are important factors for making lab work interesting. A focus on these variables will increase the potential of lab work to stimulate interactive engagement and promote the quality of science education. Entangling formal and informal learning environments will be a challenge for future research and development.

GT1 Monday

THE LEARNING CHALLENGE: A BRIDGE BETWEEN EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Marisa Michelini Research Unit in Physics Education, University of Udine, Italy

One of the main problems of scientific education is to achieve a bridge between contents and learning strategies and the context in which they have to be applied, re-interpreting everyday common knowledge. At school topics are dealt with in a technical and abstract way. The students thus tend to take up an attitude of merely reproducing the contents of school texts in order to achieve good marks. Because of this “inert knowledge structures”, which are useless outside the scholastic environment, are created. Scientific and technological learning carries a local and partly tacit nature, which doesn’t allow its carrying out through written or oral communication: knowledge cannot be conveyed to the learner already made (synthesized and re-elaborated), but it must be the object of personal analysis and setting, with reference to phenomenological contexts and interpretative models compared in a critical way. Various proposals of hands-on interactive exhibitions have managed to create explorative contexts in which it is possible to have a personal experience of the phenomena and to explore situations,

31 asking questions. They are the context in which informal learning, which is characterised by being an outcome intrinsically connected to taking part in situations, is activated. The main characteristic of the learning processes activated by an operative context is that of a shared intellectual work, organised around a common interpretative problem. Researches based on interviews which are semi structured in cognitive laboratories and in which the exploring of contexts is organised in a shared way have allowed attention to be drawn on reasoning sequences and spontaneous interpretative schemes for various types of phenomena (thermal, optical, magnetic…). They have offered a starting point for the testing of learning strategies and for the building of formal thought. They have also allowed operative proposals to be determined for the management of interactive exhibitions for the carrying out of informal learning.

GT2 Monday

REFLECTIONS ON REFLECTION - FROM OPTICAL EVERYDAY LIFE PHENOMENA TO PHYSICAL AWARENESS

H Joachim Schlichting Westf. Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster, Germany

To teach physics by means of everyday life matters and phenomena is often justified by the argument that in this way the learners come across the physical subjects outside the classroom, which - for several reasons - makes learning more successful. However, it is doubtful if something ordinary and completely natural could be sufficient interesting to get stimulated to understand it. Against this background a selection of optical everyday life phenomena is presented. These phenomena are commonplace in that our retinas are exposed to them. But normally, nothing special will be seen because nobody has learned to see it in a way that interesting questions could be raised. It is shown, that in this connection physical reasoning can play a rather important role. For regarding the world from a physical point of view means to question the everyday life tapestry which normally does not give reason to any question.

GT3 Tuesday

INFORMAL EDUCATION IN LIFELONG LEARNING, OUTREACH AND STUDENT RECRUITMENT

Robert Lambourne Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Open University, UK

This talk will examine the role that informal education can play in communicating physics and astronomy to diverse audiences through a variety of activities. Consideration will be given to the use of television and radio broadcasting, teaching in programmes of continuing and extra-mural education, and popular lecturing at a range of venues from cinemas and astronomical observatories to the purpose- built planetarium on board the ocean liner Queen Mary 2. The effect of such activities on recruitment into more formal educational programmes will also be considered, with particular emphasis on the distance teaching programme of the UK Open University and the continuing education programme of the University of Oxford.

32 GT4 Tuesday

LEARNING PHYSICS WITH EXHIBITS IN AN OUTDOOR SCIENCE CENTER

Moshe Rishpon Clore Garden of Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

In the Clore Garden of Science, an outdoor, interactive science museum, physical phenomena are demonstrated by exhibits especially built for the outdoor setting. The interactive exhibits enable the visitor to experience scientific principles in the fields of waves, planetary sciences, motion, optics, and energy and environment. The talk will explain what can be learned from these exhibits as well as the teaching methods used in the Garden of Science.

GT5 Wednesday

INVOLVING STUDENTS IN OUTREACH ACTIVITIES: THE WILHELM MACKE AWARD

Urbaan M. Titulaer Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Kepler University, Austria

Involving students in outreach activities, especially those directed to-wards high school pupils, has an obvious advantage: students provide better role models than physics professors or other middle-aged or elderly ladies or gentlemen. When students report on their research activities, one has the addi-tional advantage that physics is presented not as an assembly of long-established results to be learned from books, but as an enterprise directed at solving concrete problems. I shall report on an initiative in this vein at our uni-versity. Our department had been giving prizes for the best diploma (master) theses for some time, using a fund bequeathed by our founding professor, Wilhelm Macke. Lately, the prize winners (up to three each year) are requested to give short public presentations on their work to a non-specialist audience; high school students and their teachers, as well as the media, are especially invited. After the presentations, all but the university physicists in the audience vote to select the best presentation; the student so selected has his or her prize money doubled and receives a trophy, the Wilhelm Macke Award (originally called the Physics Oscar, but the event attracted so much publicity that the American Academy of Morton Pictures noticed, and objected to the designation). The event had a good response from high school students. The competitive element also led to a good amount of attention from local and even national media. The presentations turned out to be lively and of high level. An additional advantage of the project is that it provides training for students in presentation skills, and makes their advisors aware of the benefits of outreach activities directed at the local community.

GT6 Wednesday

LEARNING SCIENCE BY DOING SCIENCE WITH SIMPLE MATERIALS

Paul Doherty Exploratorium, San Francisco, USA

The Exploratorium Teacher Institute has been giving month-long workshops for science and mathematics teachers for the last two decades. The core philosophy of our program is that students of science should encounter real phenomena in science as often as possible. The workshops are held at the Exploratorium, where we use the rich supply of exhibits. We also help the teachers to build simple, inexpensive, classroom versions of these exhibits for their own classrooms. We then publish the resulting inexpensive

33 exhibits as “Snacks.” The “Exploratorium Science Snackbook” is a collection of such Snacks which is entirely available on-line, its sequel is titled, “Square Wheels.” Hundreds of other explorations are also available on the Exploratorium website and on my website. I will show how our program weaves exhibits, classroom versions of exhibits, and creative research time for the participating teachers into a coherent program of science learning. I will illustrate the lecture by showing many explorations of physics that use simple materials.

GT7 Wednesday

BRIDGING THE GAP: TRAINING SCIENCE TEACHERS IN SCIENCE MUSEUMS AND OTHER INFORMAL SETTINGS

Richard Walton Reader in Education, Centre for Science Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

The talk outlines the work being done at Sheffield Hallam University in training secondary science teachers using the Kelham Island Industrial Museum in Sheffield. It also demonstrates how this work integrates teaching and learning in Science Education with practical work in informal settings that form a part of the National Science Week programme. The talk will also show how the students contribute to the developmental work of the museum through undertaking small-scale visitor-studies. The activity as a whole is placed into the context of the criteria for teacher-training in the United Kingdom and the need to provide experience of teaching science in settings other than schools. Some reference is also made to the international context into which this approach can be placed.

GT8 Thursday

TEACHING AND COMMUNICATING PHYSICS

Janez Strnad Fakulteta za matematiko in fiziko, Univerza v Ljubljani

Although teaching physics and communicating physics to the public are activities with broad spectra it may be of some interest to compare them. An essential parameter in characterizing them may be the use of mathematics. Whereas mathematics is an important ingredient of teaching physics it is certainly possible to communicate ideas of physics without mathematics. This communication seems to be necessary to oppose anti-scientific trends and the view that science is contributing to the degradation of the environment.

GT9 Thursday

INFORMAL PHYSICS EDUCATION AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING – SOME EXAMPLES AND EXPERIENCES

L. Dvorak Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

Several intertwined activities aimed at informal physics education and training of physics teachers will be described: - Summer math-phys camps for high school students. - Spring camps for future physics teachers (plus some special seminars for them). - Some activities in the Heureka project aimed mainly at physics teachers at schools.

34 The history of these activities in last 10-15 years will be shortly mentioned to reflect how our contemporary approaches and methods naturally evolved and to identify why they seem to be both attractive for their participants and useful for physics education. In particular, the evolution of projects which now form a substantial part of a program of the summer camps, will be discussed in more detail with examples of proposed themes of projects that were really solved by participants etc. (During the years 1999-2003 there were 66 projects solved at our camps. Much more themes of projects were suggested, sometimes inspiring other work, development of school physics experiments etc.) The role of “academic” and “non-academic” program on the camps will be also discussed. Some recommendation how such camps can be organized will be mentioned including both positive experience and points which, as far as we learnt, are better to avoid. The summer math-phys camps for high school students served in the past as a model for smaller spring camps for future physics teachers. The role of this inspiration, further evolution of these camps (including physical “miniprojects”) will be commented. It happened that these camps and related activities influenced also other aspects of the education of future teachers, our approach to students (future physics teachers) and the character these students’ interaction with the whole department of physics education. This and also a mutual influence and inspiration of all above mentioned types of activities aimed at high school students, future physics teachers and physics teachers at schools will be also discussed.

GT10 Friday

REVIVING FLAGGING SCIENCES

B.G. Sidharth B.M.Birla Science Centre, India

The contemporary world with its multiple consumer attractions is affecting Science adversely. First, children have so many exciting distractions like cable TV, amusement malls and so on. Second, for the young adult, soft jobs in Finance, Management and similar fields are very rewarding financially and materially. A career in Science by contrast is very hard and holds out no financial rewards. The net result is that the number of bright people taking Science as a career is falling all over the world. So attempts are being made to bring the intellectual excitement of Science to students, to motivate them to look for something beyond mere bread and butter. In this context, the B.M.Birla Science Centre has done path breaking work by popularizing the culture of hands on Fun Science. The Centre has also developed such centers in other parts of India -- and these are proving to be very popular and hopefully they will swing bright youngsters towards Science and Research. This presentation traces the story of the Center’s twenty year saga of popularizing and marketing Science.

35 ABSTRACTS - Panel Talks

PANEL SESSION A: Science centres, schools and Universities

PT A Monday

EDUCATIONAL GAMES IN PHYSICS

V. Biznárová SCHOLA LUDUS, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia

Though games are considered as a typical non-formal activity, educational games are used successfully in the frame of both formal and non-formal active learning. To basic educational requirements of SCHOLA LUDUS games rank: Theme and content should be familiar to children’s experience and interests. Asked questions should challenge them. The game should survey the actual state of pupils’ knowledge. The game should alert pupils’ misconceptions and discrepancies, encourage cognitive progress. Playing the game must be fun. A typical SCHOLA LUDUS game is based on simple real experiments and authentic learning, using complexity and parallel method. Example of Labyrinth-like games will be presented at the seminar. There are always several game stations in the area of schoolyard. At each station a written question and several alternative answers are prepared. They fit the physical conception and most frequent pupils’ preconceptions and misconceptions. The player should choose the answer that s/he considers as most credible. This choice determines the further route – towards the finish if it is correct, or to a station with experiment enabling the players to recognise the invalidity of alternative conception. Each player has a map of station arrangement, where s/he marks the path. Pupils can play the game individually or in teams. To play the game and find the final station is not the end. Common discussion on alternative answers; arguments to choose the best of alternatives; the meaning of presented experiments; other experiments to verify hypotheses; particular conditions and their influence on phenomena etc. follows immediately after the play. Games support physical understanding of matter and the role of experiments, communication skills, argumentation, mutual learning, and creativity. The only restriction is time. The activity must be planned so the players can enjoy it to the end including the discussion. An efficiently constructed educational game cannot be a lose of time.

PT A Monday

TOWARDS A NEW SCIENCE MUSEUM IN TRENTO: DEVELOPING NEW TOOLS AND METHODS TO COMBINE NATURALISTIC AND HARD SCIENCE

N. Capra, R. Tarabelli, M. Bertolini, R. Guardini, M. Lanzinger Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Trento, Italy

Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali (MTSN) has worked in the past years on the project for a new science museum to be built in Trento. Many years of successful interactive temporary exhibitions and educational programs on naturalistic and hard science topics raised the interest of the local government who commissioned to MTSN a feasibility study for the new museum: the design phase is now under way and Museo Tridentino is preparing the content plan. A key feature of the new exhibition space will be its interdisciplinary approach: it will combine traditional naturalistic objects and settings, together with interactive communication methods and tools typical of science centers. MTSN is going through

36 important changes in order to adapt to its future identity by developing school programs that include both natural and hard science topics to illustrate and investigate reality with various complementary tools. Among these we find “Sci e Scienza”, a three-day trip for schools in a local ski resort that includes skiing, naturalistic outings, astronomical observations and a physics workshop on ice and snow. New ideas are currently under development by teams that include museum educators, researchers – with the Science Faculty of the University of Trento providing support for hard science contents – and school teachers. A project deals with sound, music and hearing, investigated both in the animal world and in physics. Another activity connects physics of flight with technical aspects linked to animal and human achievements in this field. Educational programs of this kind help school students to gain a method to tackle science topics in everyday life in a structured manner. These activities are also of great value for personal training of the science communicators and educators involved, who are encouraged to exchange views and compare perspectives. Examples will be illustrated and commented.

PT A Monday

ZNANSTVENI KRNEKI - SCIENCE WHATEVER

Luka Vidic¹, Miha Kos¹, Gorazd Planinšič², Samo Lasič², Riko Jerman, Katarina Španič, Tomaž Peterman, Dušan Mencej¹, Oliver Mumalo ¹Hiša eksperimentov, Slovenian Science Centre, Slovenia ²Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The workshop Znanstveni Krneki (Science Whatever) is a project, inspired by the creative staff of The House of Experiments. The target group is children between 9 and 11. Its main goal is to teach the children the basic principles of science. This is accomplished by building various simple experiments. The components from which the experiments are put together are those which one can find at home. Visitors to the workshop can take their “work” home. Their knowledge, gained at the workshop, encourages them to repeat the experiment. Each experiment has its basic form, which can also be upgraded by every individual to obtain innovative shape and functionality. This contributes to the development of creativity and the ability to “feel” the science. Tables that allow easy and fast setup have been developed specially for the Znanstveni Krneki. The poster presents different forms of the workshop and discusses the advantages of using simple experiments as an approach to teaching and promoting science.

PT A Monday

ATOMIC PHYSICS FOR PUPILS: A HANDS-ON LAB

B. Danese 1,2, G. Gratton 1, S. Defrancesco 1, S. Oss 1, R. Guardini 3, R. Tarabelli 3, N. Capra 3 1Department of Physics, Università di Trento, Italy 2IPRASE, Istituto Provinciale per la Ricerca, l’Aggiornamento e la Sperimentazione Educativi, Italy 3Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Italy

An interactive museum laboratory devoted to bring atomic physics to pupils of K6-K11 grade has been developed. Main topics are: molecules, atoms, electrons, quantization and wave nature of matter. Three approaches are intertwined: explanation and narration like a good ole professor (with a blackboard, using demonstrative experiments and telling stories), hands-on time (with models of atoms and molecules, with spectroscopes…), and a thorough use of computer visualizations, applets and movies. The relevance of some of these didactic solutions will be discussed: the covalent bond with “marble and spring” molecules, the concept of trajectory together and its failure, and atomic models like

37 the “mosquito”, the “dandelion” and the “de Broglie stadium” descriptions. The various activities have been ideated and developed by the Physics Department of the University of Trento, and then upgraded and finely-tuned together with the demonstrators of the Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali. The activities could easily be exported by teachers for an in-class use, with various degrees of depth. This experience has also the purpose to put at disposal of the teacher a set of objects that may help him/her to enhance the quality of his/her work. The laboratory-lecture has been delivered in schools and in the interactive labs of the Museum.

PT A Monday

“ENLIGHTENING THE MATTER”: A PHYSICS SHOW FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL

M. Carpineti, G. Cavallini, M. Giliberti, N. Ludwig Physics Department of the University of Milano, Italy

The Physics Department of the University of Milan, in collaboration with “Teatro del Sole” (a very known theatre company specialised for children) has developed a Physics Show for Primary Schools (age 8-11) in which three physicists perform many fascinating experiments in the context and with the structure of a real play. The show is one of the W.Y. P. 2005 events proposed by the Physics Department of the University of Milan, and in the present academic year it has reached more than thirty Schools in Milano and about 5000 students. It lasts approximately three quarters of a hour and it is followed by a discussion with the children. A booklet with simple explanations of all the experiments is also given to the teachers as an aid for dealing with further children questions. The show is about matter and its states, and about light and its behaviour when it finds the matter on its path. Themes as state changing, reflection, refraction, diffusion, colours of light, and also infrared vision and polarisation of light, are tackled with the aid of scientific instrumentation and of some custom made devices in an informal learning contest. We will present here an outline of the show and a description of its aim. We will also discuss a first evaluation of the results obtained through the analysis of the children questions at the end of the show, of the drawings that they sent us, and of the teachers’ answers to a questionnaire, about the response of the classes in the two weeks following the show. These results give the clear indication that this show can help closing the gap between physicists and general public and increase public appreciation of physics at least in primary school children.

PT A Monday

I GIOCHI DI EINSTEIN – PLAYING WITH EINSTEIN

S. Oss 1, G. Gratton 1, S. Defrancesco 1, F. Logiurato 1, B. Danese 1, C. Lavarian 2, L. Del Longo 2, M. Grifo 2, R. Guardini 2, M. Lanzinger 2 1Physics Department, University of Trento, Italy 2Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, Trento, Italy

On the centenary of Einstein’s “annus mirabilis” (1905), a temporary interactive exhibition called “I Giochi di Einstein” (Playing with Einstein) has been proposed in Trento. This event embeds many novelties: first of all, we tried to narrate and introduce Einstein’s physics through hands-on amusing exhibits. The sequence of the objects follows the education of Einstein as a physicist. These exhibits are grouped in a little number of thematical areas (mechanics, optics, electromagnetism, atoms, and relativity), allowing to approach each topic from various and complementary points of view.

38 Different tunes of emotion and wonder of the visitor are played simultaneously. Famous experiments are transformed into exhibits, and laser beams and luminescent gases are shown in their full attractiveness. The setting, that recalls the environments where Einstein lived and worked, is not only a background, but is fully part of the exhibition. Many objects – such as the relativistic omnibus or the non-inertial merry-go-round – convey a narration of fundamental concepts. Little devices and traditional toys capture visitors with their simple charm, and surprise them when physics explains the way they work. The achievement of these results has been made possible by the collaboration of the two institutions that are engaged in science and in its communication in Trento, each with its specific skills. The goals and ideas underlying the exhibition will be discussed.

PT A Monday

PHYSICS DEMONSTRATIONS ORGANIZED FOR BASIC AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS BY INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS, JAN DŁUGOSZ UNIVERSITY IN CZĘSTOCHOWA, POLAND

M. Głowacki, Bogusław Kocik Institute of Physics, Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa, Poland

The paper presents the experiences of physics demonstrations and science shows, organized for basic and middle schools by Department of Physics and Astronomy of Institute of Physics, Jan Długosz University (to 2004, Pedagogical University) in Częstochowa, Poland. These shows have been organized since 1996 and there were 420 of them till now, and they were attended and participated by about nineteen thousands of students and pupils. According to their opinion, the physics and science shows are very useful for increasing learning physics and for developing interest in the subject.

PT A Monday

INTERDISCIPLINARY DAYS: LEARNING BY EMOTIONS

Loredana Sabaz Ginnasio Gian Rinaldo Carli, Koper-Capodistria, Slovenia

Nature offers many topics which can be treated in an interdisciplinary way during a school day. For one day, objects like egg or flower could become matter of study. The school opens to experts, parents; classrooms become ateliers where different groups of students, formed following their own interest, discuss, propose and make activities, experiments, pictures, researches in internet, cook, videotape, interview, compose songs….all coordinated by teachers. At the end of the school day each group presents to others the results of their work. Materials, collected and selected, are published. If you ask to students why they like such a day they will underline two aspects: 1. social, to be together with other students in a close, different way, and 2. all things they have learned in a such active and complete way they will never forget. Two interdisciplinary days organized in my school: “The surprise egg” and “ We need a flower…”will be presented. 60 students from 14 to 17 years, choose between eight different arguments which were treated in eight workshops: 1. The surprise egg.: egg in internet, cooking with egg, the egg in the bottle (chemistry), the shape of egg (mathematics), which egg sinks? (physics), egg in the European traditions, painting with egg, inside the egg (biology), 2. We need a flower…: flowers in internet, cooking with flowers, flowers are fractals(mathematics), capillarity and osmosis(physics), colors of flowers (chemistry), flowers in poem and music, flowers like symbols (art), flowers and health (biology).

39 During the two days students were very creative, they discovered many unknown things about eggs, for example that only fresh egg sinks and also about flowers, for example each shape of a flower is a repetition of a simple geometrical figure like a triangle or a square rotated, translated. This kind of learning is not a usual one; this is informal learning where not only brain and logic are active but also and in first place emotions created by the surprise of discoveries.

PT A Tuesday

PHYSICS COMMUNICATION THROUGH SCIENCE FESTIVAL- FROM BOTTOM TO THE TOP OF THE EDUCATIONAL PYRAMID

R. Jurdana-Šepic, B. Milotić, M. Žuvic-Butorac Physics Department, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia

We present our experiences in physics communication during the Science Festival, an event which took place in Rijeka three years in a row, with the aim to enhance popularity of science and to increase the public appreciation and awareness of its importance and achievements. The Festival Programme traditionally features numerous subject matters in which physics is held in high regard. Particularities of Rijeka’s Festival were the artist’s performances on science themes, every evening’s science cafés (during which the scientists, guests of the day, were available for unformal talk) and workshops for the youngest ones, which were held during the festival week in numerous schools by scientists, university lecturers in collaboration with students of educational courses. This workshops brought into close interaction traditionally distant parts of educational piramide, with fascinating results; kids were delighted with non-usual approach to learning, students had additional occasion to get in-class practice and interact with their mentors on non-academic subjects, school teachers were eager to get more of such workshops (also for their professional education), and Schools as institutions expressed pleasure of housing such events. Apart from the University of Rijeka, societies such as the Golden Section (whose mission is the promotion of teaching and enhancing the popularity of science and mathematics) and the Society of Mathematicians and Physicists of Rijeka, participated in the organization of festival events. In order to get the infrastructure available (public places) and organizational logistic for the Festival (entering the schools, promotional activities in media, etc) we needed to establish a full cooperation with local authorities (City of Rijeka, Primorsko-goranska County) and media (local newspapers, radio stations, TV stations). This way the Science Festival brought a new and higher quality to science communication in our community.

PT A Tuesday

IS SCIENCE FOR ME? ATTITUDES TOWARDS SCIENCE IN MUSEUMS VISITORS

P. Rodari 1, M. Cardella 2 1ICS – Innovation in the Communication of Science, SISSA, Trieste, Italy 2Master in Science Communication, SISSA, Trieste, Italy

Hands-on museums should be a favourable environment where people of all ages can explore natural phenomena: children should find there an opportunity to develop their skills in scientific reasoning, while a museum experience should give adults the possibility recover a curious and open attitude in front of nature. But, is that what really happens? We lead a small pilot research at the Museo del Balì, a hands- on science museum opened in 2004 in Saltara, near Urbino, Italy. We chose two hands-on exhibits, both on physics but with different communicative characteristics; we interviewed the museum explainers, collecting their impressions on how the visitors liked, used and understood the exhibits; we observed the visitors interacting with the exhibits; and finally we interviewed a small group of the observed visitors, 52 people of all ages. We wanted to investigate if they accepted to talk about their experience, to describe

40 what they saw, and finally if they were able to explain the natural phenomena illustrated by the exhibits. This research was more of a prototype than a complete research (actually a thesis for a Master in science communication). Notwithstanding some results are interesting for a discussion about what really happen in a museum visit. Also when visitors live the visit as a pleasant and amusing experience, there can be some resistance to be drawn in scientific reasoning: typically children are keen to explore and are not afraid to express their thoughts, while women over forty often declare something as “science is not for me”. The two different exhibits turned out to attract different kinds of people, with different cognitive results. It appears clearly that museums must not take for granted the cognitive involvement of the public, and have to work on a culture of dialogue, both in museum staff and the public at large. The European project DOTIK - European Training for Young Scientists and Museum Explainers is shortly presented.

PT A Tuesday

POPULARIZATION OF SCIENCE THROUGH SCIENTIFIC FAIRS AND SCIENCE MUSEUM IN EL SALVADOR

William Mejía, Erick Mendez University of El Salvador, Western Multidisciplinary Campus, Physics and Chemistry Departments

To educate the general public about the basic notions of science is of utmost importance for improving the scientific and technological level of a country and establishing a “scientific culture”. The overwhelming majority of Central American people, who have not had scientific education, lack of a basic conception of scientific methods and are uninformed or misinformed on what science and technology is about. At the moment, there is a general fear that scientific literacy and the public awareness of science do not comply satisfactorily with the needs of a global knowledge society [1]. Initiatives such as Scientific Fairs and interactive museums on science and technology could contribute to overcome this problem. From 1993, the Departments of Sciences of the Western Multidisciplinary Campus, assuming one of their roles have been developing some scientific fairs every two years. This kind of activity has the proposal to spread, to promote and popularize the Natural Science in the western zone. This paper describes two ways that are being used to do that: 1. Scientific Fairs, are organized by the departments of sciences. The scientific projects are done and presented by students from high school. The technological resources used by the students are sciences and computer labs. One important thing is the projects must be related to the educational standards and curriculum of Natural Sciences. In addition this academic activity has an educational purpose: To involve and educate the general public from the western zone. 2. Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum. This Museum has over 200 exhibits and experiments (many of which can be replicated in the classroom or at home) and offers a variety of low-cost activities for the public. Some of these activities include providing free consultation to students and teachers on science issues, free monthly science related lectures, and access to the Museum’s new Computer Center. An interesting result has been found: a considerable number of students involved in the projects tend to study careers related to Natural Science at the University.

[1] M. Euler, Physics and Physics Education Beyond 2000: Views, Issues and Visions, R. Pinto et al. Proc. Int GIREP Conference Barcelona 2000, Paris, (2001).

41 PT A Tuesday

SCIENCE CENTERS AND TEACHER TRAINING: WHAT WORKS?

David R. Sokoloff University of Oregon

There are a number of examples of successful in-service teacher training programs that either use a science center as the training ground, or are run in other ways in cooperation with a science center. The advantages of such an arrangement include availability of equipment, availability of a science resource for use with student groups and availability of resource persons with strong science backgrounds. This talk will discuss the characteristics of successful programs, based on the author’s own experiences as science center director and physics professor, and on the experiences of others who run such programs.

PT A Tuesday

BETA PARTNERS’ PROJECT

Cor de Beurs AMSTEL Institute, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Beta partners is al local network in the region of Amsterdam in which secondary schools co-operate with Universities,Technical Colleges, Industry and Science Centre NEMO. Aim of this co-operation is raising young students enthusiasm for science and technology and related professions. This is done by improving school education and complementary by offering challenging learning arrangements outside the schools. Part of the problem students lacks interest in science and technology can be ascribed to science teaching itself. Curricula deal with classical themes and theories, and have difficulties in relating models and theories to real life issues and active problem solving. Another problem is that students (and their teachers!) have rather limited and biased idea’s about what it means to be a scientist or an engineer in professional careers. In Beta partners we try to shift the traditional science education focus on ‘knowing the facts’ to ‘solving problems in real life and/or professional and authentic contexts’ inside and outside the school.

PT A Tuesday

EXPERIENCES IN BUILDING A SMALL »HANDS-ON« SCIENCE CENTRE FROM SCRATCH

Miha Kos 1, Gorazd Planinšič 1,2 1Hiša eksperimentov, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Why one gets »infected« with the idea of establishing a Science Centre? What are the puzzle pieces to start with? How to induce the idea of the necessity of the Science centre existence to different sorts of public – scientists, economists, politicians? How big is big enough? How to stay alive? How not to become boring? What else to do?

42 These are some questions that were bothering us ten years ago. Let us talk about our experiences to deal with them. Moreover, let us explain why some of them are still bothering us now.

PT A Tuesday

COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE SCIENCE CENTER AND UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT – OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Gorazd Planinšič 1,2, Miha Kos 2 Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Hiša Eksperimentov, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The majority of Science Centers has been created or in other way initiated by the people directly emerging from Universities. Therefore, the close collaboration between these two types of institution would seem natural. The practice, however, shows that such collaboration is not easy to establish and even harder to keep. Though many common goals can easily be identified, the question how to achieve a balanced motivation, which can sustain long-term collaboration, remains to be the biggest challenge. We will present out experiences of collaboration between the Physics Education group at Faculty for Mathematics and Physics and the House of Experiments, the first Slovenian hands-on science center.

PT A Tuesday

AS FAST AS LIGHTNING, SCIENCE SHOW

Orest Jarh Technical Museum of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The speed of light is a central quantity of the special theory of relativity and one of the most famous and publicly discussed constants of nature. The story about how the measurements of light speed have evolved through the history shows very much about the nature of light and gives good insight into how science works. Some famous experiments are explained using no hi-tech equipment whatsoever. The interactive participation of the audience is essential to mimic the real experiments. People play the roles of celestial objects, scientific tools and light particles or rays. Science show is a well established way of communicating science. It is regularly used to explain certain natural phenomena and scientific facts. Usually a series of experiments is presented with explanations and some scientificbackground. Depending of the skills of the performer and the story created to connect the facts the quality of such shows can range from excellent to rather poor. Unfortunately such shows are sometimes dressed up in a veil of magic that might give the false impression of science being just another mystic activity. This is something which good science communication should avoid. The concept shown here is novel in two aspects. It tells a unique story about one single, although rather broad scientific topic which makes the public easier to follow the general idea and remember the main line of reasoning. No high-tech or special tools are needed only objects common in every household. This fact by itself is not new; original is the idea to use such approach to communicate more sophisticated concepts and experiments. Some personal experiences of the author in previous performances are incorporated into the show to make the story more personal and easier acceptable to general audience. The author is a director of the Technical museum of Slovenia and has many years of practice in science communication ranging from exhibition production, writing and public performance.

43 PANEL SESSION B: Learning physics from the experiments

PT B Monday

EINSTEIN’S BOX

G. Haeusermann Alta Scuola Pedagogica, Locarno, Switzerland

Einstein’s box is a proposal for schools on the occasion of the World Year of Physics. It contains a collection of toys and easy experiments that makes it possible to address various physics topics in an amusing way. It is meant to enable pupils in the final years of primary school or middle school to take the first steps in the field of science, guided by their teachers. Every toy is accompanied by a card with information on the kinds of experiments that can be carried out or the kind of observations that can be suggested. Some samples of the “box” have been made available to schools in the Cantone Ticino, Switzerland. During the presentation some objects form the box will be presented, together with a report of the experiences made with the pupils and the teachers’ reactions with respect to the use in several school contexts from the first pilot test in an elementary school in November 2004 and its continuation in other schools until the summer of 2005.

PT B Monday

GENERALISING THE EFFICIENCY OF ELECTRIC DEVICES

J. Jamšek and S. Kocijancic Department of Physics and Technology, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Efficiency is a term that can be related to various aspects. The efficiency of devices is generally understood as a relation between the useful output of the device and the input required for its operation. For specific devices, the efficiency is defined in exact way. For example, the efficiency of the solar cell is electric power (output) dived by light power delivered to the solar cell (input). Electric motor receives electric power and gives away mechanical power. The efficiency is defined as a ratio between the given mechanical power and obtained electric power. Efficiency of the devices is one of their technical characteristics. One can find that common manufacturing methods produce solar cells with an efficiency of 12 to 15 %. Similarly, the efficiency of electric transformers can be up to 98% and DC motors can reach from 50 to 90%. In physics teaching, the efficiencyof devices is also introduced. However, it is rarely emphasised, that the efficiency is very dependent on loading. The efficiency of any device being overloaded or not being loaded at all would be zero. The concept may be generalised to very different issues: operating system of the computer my not be efficient if too many applications at the same time are active, workers’/ students’ efficiency depend on the amount of demands given by employers/teachers, etc. In the paper we present two example experiments that emphasise the importance of loading in order to achieve maximal efficiency. The efficiency of chosen solar cell is investigated at constant illumination as a function of load resistance. Similarly, the efficiency of a chosen DC motor at fixed voltage is studied as a function of the mass that it needs to lift. Both example experiments that present the dependence of efficiency as a function of loading are computerised by means of data acquisition and control.

44 PT B Monday

PHYSICS AT THE AMUSEMENT PARK OF MIRABILANDIA

Barbara Pecori 1, Giovanni Pezzi 2 1Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy 2Liceo Classico ”Torricelli”, Faenza, Italy

In this contribution we discuss the results of an experience of informal physics learning carried out at the amusement park of Mirabilandia (Ravenna, Italy). The amusement park has welcomed in the recent years some thousand students, mainly from higher secondary school, who have been involved in the “Physics at Mirabilandia, a classroom without walls” project. Guided by tutors, i.e. university students of physics trained to the purpose, the students can carry out a series of physics learning activities based on the rides in the park. Eurowheel (panoramic wheel), Sierra Tonante (roller coaster), Carousel (merry go round), Discovery e Columbia (drop towers) allow a variety of experiments in mechanics to be performed: not only measurements of velocities, accelerations and atmospheric pressure changes but also investigation of motion from different reference frames, energy balance, etc.. Measures are taken by both traditional and portable online instruments, in the first case data are recorded by each student in a booklet, in the latter case data are sent back to the school via e-mail. The main result is that the park becomes an open air physics laboratory where students live an enjoyable experience of learning through amusement: physics is no more linked only to the school environment, learning appears not to be necessarily in contrast with amusement. But a positive image of physics learning is not the only gain: physics concepts also become more acceptable and fruitful for the students since interpretation of phenomena based on physics is compared with personal perceptive experience. Results from a recent research carried out by the authors show that the value of this experience is greatly enhanced if the day in the park is carefully integrated in the school curriculum work: a few lessons of introduction to online measurements make students autonomous in data taking at the park whereas extending data analysis to the regular school periods after the visit provides the necessary time for discussion and interpretation of the results that makes learning deeper and long-lasting.

PT B Monday

IN THE SEARCH OF THE HIDDEN HARMONY

A. Kazachkov 1, J.Moore 1, T. Scott 2, C.Willis 3, T. Ignatova 4 1Mathematics and Science Teaching Institute, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, USA 2Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, USA 3Department of Physics, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, USA 4Institute for Low Temperature Physics, Kharkov, Ukraine

What is the law of motion of a dribbling basketball player’s palm or of a hand waving Good Bye? Should we expect a harmonic law to describe repetitive motions of humans? These questions are the challenge of a student research project providing for a variety of physical activities, slow motion video-taping and processing, averaging and plotting of obtained experimental results followed by computer fitting and simulation. The most special aspect of the proposed inter-disciplinary educational research activities is focused on an explanation of the amazing illusions of vision observed when the watched targets are

45 moving by a particular trajectory (motional visual illusions). The Third Coin Illusion, the Rotating Ring’s Axis Illusion and other related phenomena have been scrutinized, with an accent on the law of motion of the targets placed in front of a contrasting background. Possible applications of the obtained research results and acquired experience in class activities (high school and university Physics, Mathematics, Biology and Computer Science) are discussed.

PT B Monday

COUPLED MAGNETIC PENDULA AND OTHER HANDS-ON EXPERIMENTS WITH “GEOMAG” TOYS

D. Allasia and G. Rinaudo Physics Department, University of Torino, Italy

Geomag toys are very popular because they give the possibility to construct different solids in an easy and reproducible way. Their basis are simple magnetic bars and magnetised spheres. Besides geometrical constructions, they offer also the possibility of a variety of experiments on magnetic aspects. One of the most interesting experiment is based on coupled magnetic pendulums, prepared with two magnetic bars made to oscillate, at a given distance, either linearly or rotationally. By changing the parameters, different experimental situations can be obtained, which can be analysed in terms of simple equations of motion. In the presentation, we will discuss examples of this type of experiments and their use both in “informal” and in “formal” didactical contexts.

PT B Monday

DIGITAL RECORDING AND ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL EXPERIMENTS

J. Koupil, L. Dvorak Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

The main goal of this contribution is to present a few video recordings and videoanalyses as well as sound card measurements that might be beneficial for students to understand physics better. All of the ideas are intended for teachers at schools, who can make and analyse their own recordings, not just copy the recorded source material. The digital camcorder or even a digital camera capable of taking a video sequence is a great tool helping us to record and analyze movement, to slow it down, to find significant points (such as the turning point) etc. According to the number of computers among students it is even possible to do an experiment in the class and let the students to analyze it as homework. The experiments (recordings) that will be presented are chosen to fit secondary school level physics or the basic physics course at university level. However useful, the videoanalysis technique is limited to the limit of max 15 or 25 (sometimes 50) samples (meaning video frames in this case) per second. To observe fast processes, we can effectively use a PC sound card. Despite of its name, it is capable to record electrical or optical quantities just as well as acoustical. All sound card experiments that will be presented require only a PC equipped with a standard sound card with simple and cheap additional hardware (e.g. a phototransistor used instead of a microphone).

46 PT B Monday

HANDS-ON SENSORS FOR THE EXPLORATION OF LIGHT POLARIZATION

Marisa Michelini, Alberto Stefanel Research Unit in Physics Education, University of Udine, Italy

Nowadays it is possible to find systems, based on on-line sensors, which are so simple and user-friendly that they are proposed for experimental interactive explorations. In the field of optical physics they have become a powerful extension of the senses, used to explore optical properties which are otherwise the object of study in advanced physical studies. Optical polarization has thus become a property which can be explored both in common everyday phenomena, and in phenomena that are interpretative challenges in the classic and quantum context, presenting itself as the preferable field in which the passage from one to the other can be made. In the last months we have enriched the “Games, Experiments, Ideas” (GEI) exhibition with around 40 simple hands-on experiments, using polaroids, birefringents crystals and on-line light sensors, to study the phenomenological aspects of lights polarization properties, both on the qualitative and the quantitative level. This series of experiments allows single informal activities, paths that highlight the fact that in everyday activity we deal mostly with linear polarised light (or partially polarised), and the creation of interpretative approaches differentiated according to the scholastic level. The experiments activities in March 2005, during the “scientific week”, promote the operative formation of the idea of quantum state and they set the formal basis for the vectorial description of the state in which a photon can be revealed.

PT B Monday

FROM THE INTERNET TO CLASSROOMS AND A WORKSHOP TO THE FINAL PRODUCT

Valentin Peternel Vocational School for Technical Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Today it is hard to find a place on the earth that is not polluted or influenced in one way or the other by us, the humans. Pollution, which comes from intense industry, traffic and farming, is becoming bigger every day. Pollution substances that come from urban regions spread trough the air over bigger territories. Thus the air gets polluted even over remote places, for example over the high, mountings lakes. It is a fact that today we burn more fossil fuels, and that does not make good influence on the nature. The greenhouse effect, the enlarged emission of CO2 , pollution of air and forming of holes in the ozone layer are the consequences that fossil fuels leave behind. To preserve our planet from further destruction, we need to adapt our ways of acquisition of energy to the rhythm of ecosystems. One of the solutions is exploiting the solar energy. By means of the data and the information’s from web sides we worked out a solar stove. The teachers of general subjects and the teachers of professional theory cooperated in this project work. The students were also included in partial tasks of this project. First some partial tasks like working out a solar stove, technical and technological documentation were included in learning process at subjects: technology, drawing and machine elements and practical work. In the next step we tried to connect learning matter at physics and mathematics with phenomena that is playing in the solar stove. At English language we achieved some general aims above all with studying materials from web sides. The initiator of this project was the principle of our school. But the project work began to live because of excellent cooperation of physics teacher and practical work teacher.

47 PT B Tuesday

PHYSICS AT THE AMUSEMENT PARK OF MIRABILANDIA

Barbara Pecori 1, Giovanni Pezzi 2 1Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy 2Liceo Classico ”Torricelli”, Faenza, Italy

In this contribution we discuss the results of an experience of informal physics learning carried out at the amusement park of Mirabilandia (Ravenna, Italy). The amusement park has welcomed in the recent years some thousand students, mainly from higher secondary school, who have been involved in the “Physics at Mirabilandia, a classroom without walls” project. Guided by tutors, i.e. university students of physics trained to the purpose, the students can carry out a series of physics learning activities based on the rides in the park. Eurowheel (panoramic wheel), Sierra Tonante (roller coaster), Carousel (merry go round), Discovery e Columbia (drop towers) allow a variety of experiments in mechanics to be performed: not only measurements of velocities, accelerations and atmospheric pressure changes but also investigation of motion from different reference frames, energy balance, etc.. Measures are taken by both traditional and portable online instruments, in the first case data are recorded by each student in a booklet, in the latter case data are sent back to the school via e-mail. The main result is that the park becomes an open air physics laboratory where students live an enjoyable experience of learning through amusement: physics is no more linked only to the school environment, learning appears not to be necessarily in contrast with amusement. But a positive image of physics learning is not the only gain: physics concepts also become more acceptable and fruitful for the students since interpretation of phenomena based on physics is compared with personal perceptive experience. Results from a recent research carried out by the authors show that the value of this experience is greatly enhanced if the day in the park is carefully integrated in the school curriculum work: a few lessons of introduction to online measurements make students autonomous in data taking at the park whereas extending data analysis to the regular school periods after the visit provides the necessary time for discussion and interpretation of the results that makes learning deeper and long-lasting.

PT B Tuesday

HANDS-ON EXPERIMENTS ON MAGNETISM AND SUPERCONDUCTIVITY FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Grzegorz Karwasz 1,2, Greg Ireson 3, Wim Peeters 4, Eryk Rajch 2 “Supercomet 2” Leonardo da Vinci EU network 1Faculty of Engineering, Trento University – Italy 2Pomeranian Pedagogical Academy Slupsk – Poland 3University of Loughborough – UK 4University of Antwerp – Belgium

We discuss methods in which simple experiments on magnetism and superconductivity can be introduced at a secondary school level, in a pan-European dimension. Three classes of experimental set-ups are proposed: 1) upper-level equipments, owned by university or local education centre and loaned to schools at request after previous training of teachers; an example is the Leybold apparatus for measurements of transition temperature in high -Tc superconductors

48 2) cheap intermediate set-ups to be used in single schools; several examples of magnetic levitation, with different degrees of freedom and illustrations of Lenz’s principle would form this packet 3) easy experiments which can be constructed at zero cost by individual teachers, like the model of Volta’s electrophore made of a polystyrene “glass”. Didactical aims and constructions details will be given of these set-ups. The set of experiments comes-out from the exchange of ideas within “Supercomet 2” Leonardo da Vinci EU [1].

[1] http://www.simplicatus.no/web.php?action=subpagelevel1_view_single&pk=38

PT B Tuesday

IS BROWN A COLOUR?

Matej Erjavec 1 and Nataša Vaupotič 2 1Gimnazija Jesenice, Slovenia 2Department of Physics, Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Slovenia

We usually hear that brown is not a colour, but merely an impression of our eyes and brain. This sentence is confusing to those who know what the definition of colour is, namely: colour is the impression formed in our eyes and brain. So brown is a colour! But what do then people usually think when they say that brown is not a colour? They actually mean that brown is not a colour of light! The colour of light is a wavelength of light in the visible spectrum. So, if we say that the colour of light is yellow, that means that the wavelength of light is in the range of 570 nm to 580 nm. But most have also seen an experiment where the screen is illuminated by green and red light at the same time, and the screen is seen yellow. To explain this, one has to know that there are three different sensor for colour seeing, called cones; one type is most sensitive to blue colour of light, one to green colour of light and one to the red colour of light. The colour we see depends on the relative excitement of one type of cones with respect to the others. If red and green cones are approximately equally excited and the blue cones are only weakly excited, we see yellow. This can be achieved by either viewing the red and the green light simultaneously or by viewing the yellow light [1,2]. Thus, to explain when and why we see brown colour we have to know what colors of light are falling into our eyes when looking at a brown object or screen. We have performed a spectral analysis of light reflected from different brown surfaces and light transmitted through brown dye solutions. We combined the data obtained by a spectrometer with the spectral sensitivity of different cones and find the relative excitement of the three cones that gives the impression of brown. We use these results to explain why red surrounded by green seems brown and why the screen that is seen yellow if surrounded by black is seen brown if the background is white.

[1] Bergsten R., “When is yellow yellow” Physics Teacher 24, 419-420 (Oct 1986). [2] Brody B., “Yellow” Physics Teacher 32, 220-221 (Apr 1994).

49 PT B Tuesday

LOCOMOTION BY BLOWING INTO THE SAIL OF YOUR OWN SAILBOAT: MUENCHHAUSEN STORY OR REAL PHYSICS ?

Michael Vollmer, Klaus-Peter Möllmann University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg, Germany

Very often students have questions which are related to unbelievable Muenchhausen stories, like, e.g. , the one where he was able to free himself from the quagmire by pulling with his hands at his hair. One example, wellknown and maybe feared by teachers, will be considered here: is it possible, that someone is able to accelerate his own sailboat by blowing into its sail? The presentation will introduce the problem, then mostly focus on simple experiments, recorded on video clips, and finally discuss some industrial applications concerning the reverse gear from jet planes.

PT B Tuesday

LASER LIGHT THROUGH THE FOG

F. Logiurato 1, B. Danese 1,2, G. Gratton 1, S. Defrancesco 1, S. Oss 1 1Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trento, Italy 2IPRASE, Istituto Provinciale per la Ricerca, l’Aggiornamento e la Sperimentazione Educativi, Italy

We propose a simple experimental setup in which the wave behaviour of light can be made spectacularly evident. Using a fog-maker machine it is possible to show, by means of light diffusion along the path, that diffraction and interference take place not just at the detection screen, but in the whole space. We use a low-power, red laser beam and a set of different devices (single and double slits, diffraction gratings…) to observe several wave properties of light. As a further example of the spectacular results of this setup, we propose to illustrate in simple terms the Laue interference-diffraction pattern caused by a disordered sample of crystalline material. This same effect can be obtained and visualized in its full beauty within our experimental setup by means of a laser beam through a rotating diffraction grating. We show the resulting Laue cones as they are never shown in a direct experimental configuration. As a further advantage over a more traditional arrangement, our setup allows one to study three-dimensional interference patterns as well as ray optics and image formation. Conventional optical instruments, from simple lenses to photographic lenses, mirrors of any shape and configurations can be immersed in our foggy environment to follow the real light path, with either extended, non-coherent light sources or with thin laser beams to enhance specific rays in their three-dimensional travel. The simple mode of assembling and operation of this apparatus will be discussed.

PT B Tuesday

SELF CONTAINED PHYSICS DEMONSTRATIONS AND MIND TEASER KIT

Joris Dirckx 1, Dirk Van Dyck 1, Wim Peeters 1, Alexander Fishman 2, 1University of Antwerp, Belgium 2University of Kazan, Russia

Abstract: The University of Antwerp presents a project for secondary schools, called “Physics is cool”, It was approved and heavily sponsored by the Flemish departement of Science and Innovation, within the action “Wetenschap maakt Knap”. We initially put together more than 45 experimental kits

50 with everything you need to do some 40 fascinating small experiments: all materials needed to do the experiments, an extensive teacher guide and a CD. Also teacher training sessions were set up. The initiative was evaluated as being very valuable, both by teachers and government, which resulted in a two year prolongation of the project. So far 65 identical, additional kits will be built, as well as four series of smaller “special” kits, for other target groups, but with the same “philosophy”.

PT B Tuesday

EDUCATIONAL ICT TOOLS TO IMPROVE WAVE PHYSICS UNDERSTANDING

C. Fazio, I. Guastella, G. Tarantino UoP-PERG (University of Palermo Physics Education Research Group) Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche e Astronomiche Università di Palermo, Italia

The difficulties connected with the teaching of mechanical waves (and sound in particular) are mainly due to the wide use of complex mathematics, very soon not easily accessible to the majority of non- specialists. To overcame this situation and favour the understanding of such phenomena it is important to extend the use of specific learning tools able to take advantage of common representations of phenomena to build correct descriptive as well as interpretative models. The use of information and communication technology tools makes possible to easily link the common ideas about the real world phenomena to specific physical variables relevant for a correct scientific description of the phenomena. In this communication we will talk about a new way to interconnect experiments and simulations. The main aim of these simulations and experiments is to help users to link some commonly perceived characteristics of sound, like the sound level, pitch and timbre, to the physical variables related to the associate sound wave. More specifically, we will show experiments and simulations about: - the visualization of acoustic waves represented in a space-time graph with their amplitude varying during time and the related variations of the sound level of the acoustic signals obtained by the speakers output; - the visualization of sinusoidal acoustic waves represented in a space-time graph with their frequency varying during time and the related variations of the pitch of the acoustic signals obtained by the speakers output; - the differences in timbre produced by a gradual increase of the harmonic content of an acoustic wave (so to explain why different musical instruments playing equal notes produce sounds easily distinguishable “by ears”). Results will be given of the experimentation of these materials in the pedagogical laboratories of the Italian School of Pre-Service Teacher Education including examples of teaching/learning pathways prepared by prospective teachers.

PT B Tuesday

CONVECTION IN LIQUIDS ― SOME ILLUSTRATIVE EXPERIMENTS

Colm O’Sullivan 1, Slavko Kocijancic 2 1Department of Physics, National University of Ireland Cork, Cork, Ireland 2Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The process of convection is usually treated somewhat superficially in textbooks, particularly in relation to real convective heat transfer mechanisms. Modern data acquisition systems, however, enable the phenomena involved to be studied by means of clear, simple and instructive experiments.

51 To this end, the e-ProLab software that supports the well-known ComLab data acquisition system has been extended to incorporate up to eight thermocouples. In contrast to established commercially available systems, ComLab provides open source information for development of specific applications. In this instance, an interface available from Pico Technologies (also providing open source libraries) has been incorporated in the eProLab environment. This contribution will describe a number of straightforward experiments in which such thermocouple arrays, together with other sensors, are used to illustrate various heat transfer processes involving convection in liquids. Video clips involving the visualization of convection currents in typical cases will also be presented.

PANEL SESSION C: Gaps and bridges in communicating physics to the public

PT C Monday

ON THE TRACK OF MODERN PHYSICS

G. Karwasz 1,2, D. Pliszka 2, T. Wróblewski 2, E. Rajch 2

1Faculty of Engineering, Trento University, Italy 2Pomeranian Pedagogical Academy Slupsk, Poland

Difficulty in public awareness of Physics results from a kind of selfish of scientists. Physics, in the widely spread opinion is the most difficult (and dull) school subject. The ex-pupils, becoming politicians, keep this idea, and if they allocate money to the research, they do it without real understanding the needs. Scientists, on their side, insist on 43 dimension of Universe [1], most of them hidden, but all absolutely indispensable. Solely L. Lederman in his “God’s particle” states clearly, after having regretted the political decision in the USA to stop the Super-collider - “In this way, we will never know how God’s particle is made”. But then he admits honestly: “If only one exists…” Therefore, the urgent need is to move from the “heaven level” of knowledge, showing that Physics is not only a fairy- tale about anti-Universes but has many every-day use applications. The virtual exhibition “On the track of Modern Physics” [2] is the spin-off of the real event at XXXVIII Congress of Physics in Poland in 2003. We show unexpected applications, like photo acoustics in agriculture (“How are you, miss Orchidea?) [3], we discuss possible new discoveries but also insist on the human part of science – errors done by Roentgen discovering X-rays or family problems of young Einstein [4]. Whenever possible, high-level knowledge, like construction details of lasers are shown with every-day objects: a singing tube and sun-glasses. [1] A. Zicchicchi, RAI1 TV transmission, 01.05.2005 [2] G. Karwasz, D. Pliszka, T. Wróblewski, E. Rajch, “On the track of Modern Physics”, http://www. science.unitn.it/~karwasz/ [3] G. Karwasz “How are you, miss Orchidea?”, http://www.science.unitn.it/~karwasz/orchidea- en.html [4] G. Karwasz “Albert and Mileva”, http://www.science.unitn.it/~karwasz/albert-en.html

PT C Monday

MACH´S POPULAR LECTURES ABOUT ACOUSTICS

Leopold Mathelitsch Institute of Physics; University of Graz, Austria

Ernst Mach was not only an outstanding physicist, he also spent a lot of time and efforts to bring physics to the public. He gave many lectures in front of general audiences, in addition to that, he published the 52 content of these lectures in articles and books [1,2]. This presentation should give a feeling of the style of Mach, how he elementarized and popularized acoustical topics. On the other hand, Machs explanations are compared to present-day knowledge, where electronic means have been used both for research and presentation.

[1] E. Mach „Populärwissenschaftliche Vorlesungen“, Verlag Barth, Leipzig 1923. [2] E. Mach „Einleitung in die Helmholtz´sche Musiktheorie. Populär für Musiker dargestellt.“, Verlag Leuschner-Lubensky, Graz. 1866.

PT C Monday

PHYSICS IN THE MEDIA – OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRAINING SCIENTIFIC THINKING

Gesche Pospiech TU Dresden

Public understanding of physics is the goal of many efforts in public lectures, science centers and so on. But sometimes misunderstandings or mystification of physics is observed: people think that for instance the moon phases, energy from planetes, radiation from the sol, electric and magnetic fields and so on may explain their feelings. As children meet physics phenomena long before they receive the first lessons in science education, they early develop a view of physics and what physicists do. Such implicit views are also transported in books and films. Which influence do these media have on children? In general, they would grasp terms and learn some facts. But as they do not have broad experiences they will not know which statements e.g. in books are true and which are not. In the talk proposals are made how to incorporate print media directly to address these questions of fantasy or reality with pupils and this way train physical thinking. From this natural uncertainty of children there is only a small step to esoteric views. In research on students’ misconseptions it is often observed that students keep their everyday views besides their physics views and need extra hints to apply the physics view. Perhaps (unwanted) interferences between these both perspectives lead people to think of possible influences on their life and well being. Insight into the scientific method, learning about doing physics, shortly: conveyance of scientific literacy, should be the appropriate way to prevent these misunderstandings. Science education hence may not only comprise facts and laws but also has to clarify the scientific background of physics terms and laws viewed from philosophy of science. The possibilities of introducing this kind of reflection and corresponding scientific analyses in physics lessons with aid of concrete examples from the media are discussed.

PT C Monday

A LESSON IN THE FORM OF A SPECTACLE

C. Agnes Department of Physics, Politecnico of Turin, Italy

Together with the teachers and students and staff of Liceo Segrè in Turin, we performed a play on Einstein’s relativity, based on a script I derived from a secondary school textbook [1]. I’ll give an account of this experience on the border between lesson and spectacle. The idea is to capitalize on the emotional and intellectual participation to a spectacle, and in this way to communicate basic concepts of physics. The danger is what I call scientific esotericism, which is the use of fantasy and the terminology of science

53 only to entertain. The rule therefore is: the disciplinary contents have to be 100% correct and simple enough to achieve public understanding. The hope is to teach them a lesson they will never forget!

[1] Der Karlsruher Physikkurs (Ein Lehrbuch für die Sekundarstufe 1) Vol 3 , 27

PT C Monday

A LOCAL TV SHOW A BRIDGE BETWEEN SCHOOL AND PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF PHYSICS

Miran Tratnik High school Gimnazija Nova Gorica, Slovenia

In this contribution I will be presenting a TV show about motion in a plane. The local TV station invited me to organize a TV show where themes on high school physics are discussed. Initially, I asked students and people on the street to observe a physics problem printed on paper: A boat has to cross a river. There are two sketches; in one, the river is flowing, and in the other, the river is still. The question was: Do the boats take the same time to cross the river? The results were as follows: the students, who were already learning about motion in a plane, at school, answered correctly with the rate of 90 percent; the students who haven’t learnt about such motion and the people on the street answered correctly with the rate of 48 percent. People do not know that two perpendicular directions are independent of one another. The TV show began by analyzing the answers. To prove the correct answer I showed two experiments. Two objects were thrown simultaneously (one was thrown horizontally, the other rolled horizontally). The other experiment was to show a toy car moving slowly across a paper and, at the same time, I pulled the paper away in perpendicular direction. The moving paper represented the river flow and the toy car was the boat. The advantage of showing experiments on TV is that experiments can be slowed down and viewers can observe what is actually happening. On TV it is difficult to see viewers’instant reactions, whether the programme is comprehendible, whether it is interesting or boring, whether I am speaking too fast or too slow, so I could adjust myself to their acceptance. Appearing on TV, has presented me new challenges which I initially didn’t expect. The experience allowed me to observe myself in a completely different situation and ask myself other questions concerning my demonstrating abilities.

PT C Monday

SUPERCOMET 2 – TESTING AND EVALUATION OF MATERIALS

V. Engstrøm Simplicatus AS, Trondheim, Norway

The SUPERCOMET 2 Project is currently testing and evaluating the materials developed in the SUPERCOMET project – a teacher seminar with hands-on activities combined with the use of interactive animations, text and video presenting electromagnetism and superconductivity with an accompanying teacher guide. The materials are translated/adapted for use in 15 European countries. The first phase of SUPERCOMET 2 in 2005 involves testing and evaluation. The materials will be expanded and updated according to the results during 2006, and the final version produced in 2007. The project welcomes any voluntary contributions. Free copies can be given to GIREP members interested in testing and evaluation of these materials. Contact [email protected] for more information.

54 PT C Monday

LEARNING TO TEACH PHYSICS FROM LESSONS OF MARIA SKLODOWSKA-CURIE

J. Turło, E. Dąbkowska, K. Przegietka, A. Karbowski, G. Osiński, K. Służewski, R. Jankowski Physics Education Laboratory, Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

You have to be persistent and believe that you are able to do something well… Maria Sklodowska-Curie

To celebrate 100th anniversary of Maria Sklodowska-Curie Nobel Prize for investigation of radioactivity phenomenon in 2003, the book on: Lecons de Marie Curie has been edited in France and translated into Polish. These lessons have taken place in 1907-1908 in Paris. Mrs Curie created an unusual, private school for pupils 10-12 years old. One of them was Isabelle Chavannes - the author of notes of Mrs Curie physics lessons. Jean Perrin was teaching chemistry, Paul Langevin – mathematics, Henri Mouton - science. The original and novel in teaching method in that school was: learning from nature, demonstration of exciting science hands-on experiments explained by the great scientists, activity of students by doing individual investigations, lively discussions with the use of simple and understandable language and acquiring valuable social skills through personal examples of teacher genius: hard-working, persistence, honesty, sensitivity for needs of others, etc. Having not so many informal settings for teaching and learning science out of school as some other countries have, we used opportunity of Science Festival to present the original Maria Sklodowska- Curie physics lessons to the public including science teachers and students. Students of one Torun school were the actors performing the historical lessons of physics: How to distinguish vacuum from the air, Does air has weight?, How water reach tap?, Measurement of density of solid bodies and fluids, Checking the Archimedes law, Why ships float?, How pressure is measured by barometer? The opinions of students-actors and those from audience were very positive, e.g.: “Being an actor in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie lesson was extremely nice experience for me, but first of all I learned a lot of physics. I‘d like to take a part in such lessons every day!”, ”During preparation of the performance we had a lot of fun”, “I hope that we repeat this kind of activity once more”, “It was a very good performance, physics seems to me much easier now!”. During the Conference presentation we are going to use multimedia to show some examples of Maria Sklodowska-Curie hands-on experiments performed by students along with some comments.

PT C Tuesday

ETHICS IN PHYSICS COMMUNICATION

Zofia Golab-Meyer Institute of Physics, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Some issues connected with ethics in physics teaching and presenting it to the general public will be discussed: - Honest use of numbers (orders of magnitude, units), - Selection of the presented topics. Structure of presentation (sequence of presentation), choice of examples, - Preservation of scientific exactness. How far (if ever) we can go with simplifications, in physics in school and in public presentation? Is there any difference in those two cases? The participants are asked to prepare suitable examples for the discussion.

55 PT C Tuesday

INTERACTIVE, LIVING AND VITAL SCIENCE

P. Cerreta, C.L. Toglia Rete di Scuole: Associazione ScienzaViva – IIS “A.M. Maffucci”, Calitri, Italy

We intend to present a short report of the experiences of our Association, ScienzaViva, a group of teachers, students, artisans and technicians, which is doing in Italy an original work in the Informal Learning and Public Understanding of Physics and other Sciences. Starting from the awareness of the mismatch existing in Science, in particular in Physics, between the experts and the simple students and of the common people too, our group is committed in explanatory connecting actions between the parts. This commitment consists of a series of enterprises: the autonomous production, by ourselves, of the interactive exhibits which we use both in the Schools and in Public Exhibitions; the introduction into the Schools of styles of learning which are coming from Science Centres; the identification of the theoretical dimensions of the hands-on activities we employ in teaching physics; the travelling scientific demonstrations, around the Italian regions, that involve “empirical knowledge” in addition to scientific rules and laws. Although guided by disciplinary purposes, many of these actions are led with the artisans’ conceptions of manipulating materials and tools. The artisans are for us a precious source of knowledge; we consider them as “living treasures”. After all, we prefer being socially and intellectually independent from the Universities and the Big Science and more interested in the practice of common people and his difficulties of understanding Science. This feature makes our actions living and vital, similar to those of the grassroots movement. Nevertheless, we aim to find out the structural reasons of the old conflict between formal and informal learning attitudes and explore constantly the history of science searching the roots of the essential fracture existing in human mind which generates these different attitudes.

PT C Tuesday

THE STUDY OF PHYSICS FOR NON-PHYSICISTS

T. Kranjc Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Natural sciences, and technology based on them, have enormous influence on our everyday life. In our research we wanted to determine the level of scientific literacy of students, especially of students of the Pedagogical Faculty, who will themselves be teaching natural sciences in elementary and high schools. What is their knowledge and understanding of basic concepts and principles of science? We were particularly interested in their familiarity with the “modern” areas of physics. We conducted a series of tests (questionnaires) among students that had combination majors mathematics-technology, chemistry-biology and biology-home economics. In their freshman year these students take 120-165 hours of physics for non-physicists (60-90 hours of lectures, 30 hours of computation practicals, 30-45 lab hours). We were assessing their knowledge and understanding of a) some basic concepts which are covered in physics lectures and were very much emphasized in class, b) some generally known facts from physics which were not included in physics lectures. We were also assessing the motivation of students for study, and their interest in physics. We were also trying to determine which methods of study are acceptable to students and effective, considering their prior knowledge and general scientific literacy, and thus successful in acquiring deeper knowledge of certain topics. Different sources of study (chapters from textbooks, new texts, Internet) were made available to the test group that showed greater motivation for studying, and we were available for consultation to the same group. The basic problem seems to be students’ lack of motivation for study and a lack of study habits, which they should have acquired in their previous study in elementary and high schools, as well as the general attitude of the society towards natural sciences and technology.

56 PT C Tuesday

BUSES, PHYSICS AND PUBLIC DIALOGUE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

Stefano Fantoni, Roberto Iengo, Nico Pitrelli ICS, Innovations in the Communication of Science, SISSA –International School of Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy

The importance of informal contexts in the transfer of knowledge and in the way we shape our image of the world is widely acknowledged. Science communication activities in this direction need to be increased and improved. In particular, physics, whose public image is declining with respect to the past and to other scientific disciplines like biology, could benefit from activities not merely restricted to a formal context. This is for two reasons: 1) To redefine its role in society in a more friendly way; 2) To provide an effective tool for public participation on issues concerning science and technology. Taking advantage of the opportunity offered by The World Year of Physics 2005, SISSA (International School of Advanced Studies) and INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics), both based in Italy, have started a project that follows the lines described above. The name of the project is “12 Autobus”. It consists in the expositions of 12 posters showing findings, events, figures of physics on the local buses of twelve different Italian cities. Connected to this project, SISSA, in particular the SISSA Master in Science Communication, has developed a series of panels on physics that can be displayed in different exhibition environments. In this contribution we aim to reveal the reasoning behind these projects considering that they has served, among many others, as a basis for the launch of a PhD in Science and Society, organised by the University of Milano and SISSA, that will start in October 2005 and which is the first of its kind in Italy.

PT C Tuesday

STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND SCIENTISTS JOIN INQUIRY-BASED PHYSICS TEACHING/ LEARNING PROJECTS

Vera Bojović Institute for Education Development, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

This paper deals with some of inquiry-based science teaching/learning projects, like La main à la pate, which are very important for the development of initial motivation of the children’s interest in natural sciences. The other project, GLOBE program, with same approach to science education, offers students opportunities to conduct real scientific research by making environmental observation and shearing their data with students from other countries via Internet. Equally important in this kind of projects is the benefit teachers experience. It has been shown that these projects are especially useful for primary school teachers. Increasing interest in science, incorporating hands on scientific research into their curricula, professional development and scientists’ support have been observed. The mentioned projects involve kids in science and join students, teachers and scientists in inquiry-based physics teaching and learning. They can be bridges in communication physics, not only for students but for their teachers and parents – to the public, too. This contribution will address some of the implications for inquiry-based science education and will use physical phenomena as a vehicle to explore the structure and ideas behind the mentioned projects.

57 PT C Tuesday

SOCIAL CHANGES WITH PHYSICS WORKSHOPS

Roberto Sayavedra-Soto IPN, Mexico

The ministry of education in Mexico, in specific Adult Education Institute (INEA), had made many efforts to attend specific citizens who have not ended their basic education. The results of these efforts are poor, this is one of the reasons to propose this project, and its name is “Animación en Plazas Comunitarias” (Animation in Communities Centers); the objectives are that youth, older than fifteen years, finish its basic education and find ways to work in society. The physics workshops are designed to increase the terminal efficacy and permanence of youth in the communities centers. When the youth are in the workshops understand the importance of their basic instruction. This outcome is a result of the development of their basic abilities to read and write, to make the basic arithmetic operations and to use the computer to find information. The computers are to applied and tell knowledge too. These abilities, we propose, are fundamentals to youth to finish their basic education. The workshops topics respond the youth expectative: what is my destination into society? What can I do with this workshops information? If youth don’t know ways to performance into society, it’s very difficult find ways to work. The workshop methodology to respond and to get attention of youth, we begin delivery information; in this workshop section youth use their senses and brain. This is an integral way to get information. To continue, we propose them to write and to share with colleges every thing that they need to obtain success in the workshop challenge. The last step is the use of symbols; they appear in their scholars books and are necessaries to their basic education. This project has two groups, each one has a name: youth learning community and figures learning community. The first community conforms by students and the figures are the instructors. The idea is when youth do the workshops; instructors learn how to do it. The instructors give possession of these workshops and utilize them to empowerment their instruction.

PT C Tuesday

RESEARCH PATHS IN PHYSICS: CAN WE EXHIBIT THEM?

B. Pecori 1, O. Levrini 1, A. Spizzichino 2, A. Rossi 1 1Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy 2IASF, CNR, Bologna, Italy

This contribution describes the research basis of the exhibition “Physics at Bologna: Research Paths” that is being organized by the Physics Department, University of Bologna for the WYP 2005. The exhibition aims at presenting the main research areas and trends (Astrophysics; Nuclear and sub-nuclear Physics; Matter Structure – microelectronics and nanostructures; Earth Physics; Medicine Physics; Cultural Heritage Physics; Physics Education) to a wide audience of students, teachers and citizens in general. The exhibition design is also an opportunity for Physicists to look at their research from a critical perspective aimed at finding out what arguments are most effective in attaching meaning and substance to the expression “Physics is culture”. For this purpose the following aspects will be stressed as leading threads of the exhibition: - Passion for investigation: We wish to communicate what makes “the physicist’s job” an intellectual engaging challenge, by giving voice to famous physicists who worked and young researchers who still work at the Physics Department in Bologna. - Scientist as the “artist of questioning”: In order to guide the visitors among the different areas and, however, to enable them to gain an image of Physics as a whole discipline, Physics will be presented as the art of shaping knowledge questions so that Nature can give understandable answers. A cascade of

58 questions starting from the most basic ones (What is matter? What is time? What is space?) and evolving towards more and more specific ones will introduce each research area. - ban the physics stereotypes: In the exhibition the different research areas will be connected by different paths identified by some dichotomies (simple/complex, small/big, theory/practice). By following each of those the visitor should be stimulated to reflect on some widespread believes that are in contrast with the present research trends in Physics (for example the separation of basic and applied Physics research) and find how different research areas actually intersect and support each other (for example Particle physics and Astrophysics).

PANEL SESSION D: New teaching strategies and learning methods

PT D Monday

COGNITIVE LABORATORY: GRAVITY AND FREE-FALL FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL SITUATIONS

F. Bradamante, M. Michelini Research Unit in Physics Education University of Udine, Italy

The informal context promotes pupils personal involvement with the subject of study, the development of interpretative sequences of reasoning and children comparison among their different interpretative hypothesis. The Cognitive Laboratories of Operative Exploration (CLOE) are open environments where semi-structured interviews on experimental situation activate hypothesis formulation and operative exploration. In this context, ideas, individual learning patterns and the building of formal thinking become explicit. A CLOE activity is carried out on gravitational field for primary school to investigate the meaning of the free fall from local situations (free-fall on the Earth) to global ones (the motion of satellites around the Earth). It starts considering free-fall motions with different initial velocities that have the same characteristics both in the local and global context and leads to recognize the orbit around the Earth as a free-fall. This is locally represented by a toy elevator, which help children to connect the lack of weight in both systems of free-fall: local (the elevator falling) and global one (the shuttle in orbit around the Earth). This is the link to build a model of gravity that interpret all the considered situations, first through an interpretative vision of phenomena in global terms (the prevision of objects free-fall from a high mountain, using Newton drawings), then through an analogical objectual model of gravitational field. Dealing with the considered conceptual knots the informal context allow children to explore the cinematic characteristics of free-fall and to predict, even if not in all cases, the three possible trajectories respect to the initial velocity of a body thrown from the high mountain. We observe that the idea of the motion of satellites as a free-fall around the Earth was frequently mentioned. Finally, the sequence of experiments and discussions proposed help children to overcome the common idea of a limit sphere of action (generally the atmosphere) of Earth gravitational field.

59 PT D Monday

TRADITIONAL EDUCATION OR CONSTRUCTIVISM? TRANSFORMATION OF THE CZECH CURRICULUM OF PHYSICS

L. Koníček, E. Mechlová Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Computer aided education is possibility for increasing of Physics education in the Czech Republic. The results of investigation in computer aided education: the efficiency of education of physics with computers is higher then traditional education and the attitude to physics change. The Curriculum of Physics is not prepared as this time demands. The efficiency of education with traditional experiments and tasks is lower than with constructivism oriented tasks and experiments. The new Framework educational programs for secondary school gives call to use computers and computer aided education with constructivism. Contribution compares two approaches to the giving problems and solving these problems by pupils by the traditional approach and with constructivist approach. The examples of everyday life will be given by the traditional approach and with constructivist approach.

PT D Monday

A TITRATION EXPERIMENT AS AN EXAMPLE FOR A COORDINATED APPROACH IN SCIENCE TEACHING AT HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL

Michele D’Anna, Paolo Lubini Alta Scuola Pedagogica, Locarno, Switzerland

In this contribution we briefly report on a project involving high-school teachers in the production of didactic materials based on a coordinated approach to the biology, chemistry and physics teaching activities. As an example we illustrate a titration experiment, in which the temperature of the reaction medium was recorded on-line, and we present a simple model based on the energy balance.

PT D Monday

CHILDREN NAIVE IDEAS/REASONING ON LOGIC CIRCUITS IN AN INFORMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Italo Testa 1, Marisa Michelini 2 1Università degli Studi di Udine and Dipartimento Scienze Fisiche, Università “Federico II”, Napoli 2Università degli Studi di Udine

Many studies have shown that operational paths developed as games and experiments in the framework of interactive exhibitions trigger informal learning procedures characterised by personal involvement in the analysis and interpretation of processes. Activities as semi-structured interview-based cognitive laboratories can elicit children’ reasoning schemas and naïve ideas. This happens particularly in learning situations in the framework of “Islands” featuring simple apparatuses aimed at exploring ideas and phenomena. Activities different and new with respect to the usual school practice proved to be interesting and motivating from operational and experimental viewpoints. Recently, in the hands-on exhibition GEI (Games, Experiments, Ideas), the “Island” of electric circuits simulating the basic logic operators NOT, AND, OR, NAND, NOR has been updated. Every-day material as, e.g. batteries, bulbs, hairpins and paper clips has been used to build up the circuits.

60 During cognitive laboratories, in the framework of the “Marzo Scientifico 2005” (Scientific March 2005) at the University of Udine and the “Festival Internazionale dei Ragazzi 2005” (Children International Festival 2005) in Trigesimo (UD), data about reasoning strategies of elementary school pupils (8-10 years) have been collected. Along with semi-structured interviews, worksheets and conceptual maps have been used during the laboratories activities as investigating tools. The activities carried out have allowed to elicit reasoning strategies on which pupils rely in order to build up the truth tables which describe the circuits’ behavior.

PT D Monday

THE FORCE BETWEEN ELECTRIC CHARGES AND A NEW APPROACH TO THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY.

Kjell Prytz University of Gavle

The well-known fact that magnetism is a relativistic effect is emphasized much too weakly in contemporary physics education and literature. By relativistic effect we mean motional consequence, i.e. the fact that a phenomenon appearance depends on the relative motion between observer and event. The magnetic force is a motional consequence of the electric force and can be derived from electrostatics by using relativistic transformation rules. In this way the two forces are unified into one basic dynamics, the electrodynamics. In this paper we consider the reverse procedure, i.e. we derive some relativistic results from magnetism. We will base our discussion on the simplest possible phenomena: the pairwise interaction between two electric charges in rest and in uniform motion. By utilizing the classical electric and magnetic force laws, we will in particular derive time dilation. The main pedagogical advantage with our approach is that everything is based on simple observations which everyone can experience. The notion that relativistic effects are some kind of exotic phenomena with no importance for our daily life is a severe myth which we revise. Starting with a conceptual discussion aiming at reaching qualitative conclusions, the ideas are then quantified by deriving time dilation and finally an overview of the literature is given. Since our aim is to deal with concrete observable facts only, our consideration is free from force fields and accordingly the concept of light.

PT D Monday

GIFTED KIDS AND MODELING PHYSICAL PHENOMENA

S. Zelenda Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

Activities of kids creating different models with computers during an experimental online course for gifted kids at the age of 14-15 were recorded in 2004-2005. The data of “not assisted successful modeling” were related to several quite general psychological characteristics (structure of intelligence, motivation, personal orientation) of the kids. The analysis showed some correlations and also many questions and suggestions to further and broader research in answering the main question: What are the limits and chances of applying modeling with computers in teaching physics as a way of structuring and exercising knowledge and knowledge structures. It still remains the important question: Can some ways “naturally” used by gifted kids be stimulated and exploited also in designing new ways of applying modeling with broader groups of kids? The recorded data are limited by origin (online learning system) but gives some material to specify ways and identify critical points (gaps, breaks) in creative modeling and might help to unmask

61 previous conceptions, misconceptions and inconsistency of knowledge structures. The contribution describe some identified common critical points and suggests and discuss ways how to use them for learning physics and how to overcome in the modeling process. The strategy of next stage of research is mentioned.

PT D Monday

PHYSICS WITHOUT FORMULA

Azita Seied Fadaei House research of education organization part 5, Tehran, Iran

We have learnt physics with formula. We think the best way is this way. Many students will forgot formulas after a short time. For having a good memory about physics we should review it’s learning with ways that they are interesting . This ways are : 1) concentrating on the physics phenomena’s in the world. 2) thinking about these phenomena’s and find more and more of them. 3) use the computer soft wares to create and simulate the same phenomena and growing up the imaginations. 4) explaining the understanding of the physics laws with making drama , singing poems,… 5) having some researches about other science and physics. 6) explaining the relative between psychology and physics. 7) trying to have some researches about physics in the Koran (or other religious books) , poems , .. 8) having some exams with each of the above advices. 9) making some chances for physics students with providing experiments in teaching in order to give self confidence. Explaining: Nowadays the industrial life causes Jerry Built. we don’t have enough time for thinking about the world ,our world’s laws, Therefore concentrating on the physics phenomena’s in the world is the first step for scientific life. The main and important way for having this life is having high motivation about thinking about the world in order to be nearer to the principle that they control our world in order to control our thoughts for having good life. In our method the main concept is using the people interests ,they like working with computers, they like painting ,making motion graphic shapes and simulations with computer soft wares for example Word, PowerPoint, Ulead cool 3D, photoshop, flash player… In my researches I started to have fun time for learning to students and getting some exams in this ways it surprised me. Many of the students like this way and made some virtual physics experiments. The teacher could plan informal exams in order to compare their productions and explain their ideas about their thoughts in physics. Sure they love this way, I try it.

PT D Monday

NEW ABOARDING METHODS FOR THE STUDY OF EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

L.V.Constantin 1, L.Dinica 2 1National College Elena Cuza, University of Bucharest, Romania 2 School Inspectorate of Bucharest, Romania

The modern teaching has to be based on the creative teaching , on the active participation of the student during the physics classes , on the utilization of some teaching , learning , evaluation methods which can attract the students in the activity of studying. Living in an informational world, students spend good part

62 of their time in front of the computer. Although the use or activation of educational software presents many advantages, there exists the danger of losing practical, calculation and investigation of reality abilities and deteriorate of human relations. For that, they mustn’t give up their experimental activity in the laboratory! This work presents the methods of studying physics in which the real experiment and virtual one complete each other. Also, analyzed the methods of evaluation which contain not only tests with different types of items , but and the solving of some rebus , the presentation of some theatre acts with scientific and educational contains , the project and informational material work, portfolios, virtual simulations and the creations of some experimental systems and installations made of materials used in house work. Thus, students are not stressed by the classical methods of giving marks and learn with pleasure for this subject matter named physics!

PT D Tuesday

FORMAL AND INFORMAL ACTIVITIES FOR DIDACTIC PLANNING ON SIMPLE MACHINES USING A WEB INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT IN PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING

F. Corni, P. Fornasier, M. Michelini Research Unit in Physics Education of Udine, Modena and Reggio Emilia Universities

The planning activity constitutes a bridge between the formal and the informal, situated, teacher formation. It also represents the challenge to realize the collaboration between schools and university in the hard task of professional training of teachers. Such a challenge is particularly arduous in the case of scientific education, since it involves the need of formation of scientific bases contextualized for didactic purposes, i.e. to master the scientific foundations through the ways of planning the didactic interventions for pupils. An activity of didactic planning about the simple machines has been experimented with about 70 students of the Primary Education Sciences Courses of the Universities of Udine and of Modena and Reggio Emilia using an interactive web environment in a blended manner. The planning ways employed by the students and the elaborated proposal constitute an example of integration of formal activities and of cooperative learning in primary school teacher formation.

PT D Tuesday

INFORMAL TRAINING OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ON MAGNETIC PHENOMENA

Marisa Michelini, Alberto Stefanel Research Unit in Physics Education, University of Udine, Italy

A series of simple experiments on magnetic phenomena has been set up, using simple materials and games, in view of using them within interactive hands-on exhib Games Experiments Ideas (GEI). Within the PRIRUS Project (projects of interest for the link between school and universities) a research on scientific education in primary school has been started on the same subject. The project, which involved the Units of the primary schools of the IC of Pagnacco and Tricesimo and the Research Unit in Physics Education of the University of Udine, was articulated in three parts: 1) formal activities for teacher formation based on the analysis of operative proposals and the relative didactical instruments for the children’s exploration of phenomena; 2) setting up of activities, instruments and methods for class intervention; 3) open experimentation and action research in the operative context of primary school classes.

63 Phases 2 and 3 in particular represented an informal context for the formation of teachers facing the main learning knots on magnetic phenomena which have already been highlighted by literature. Hands-on activities directly carried out as a project by the teachers are the starting point for the comparison between scientific interpretative hypothesis and common knowledge. They therefore become the centre of strong formation both on the disciplinary and the pedagogical level.

PT D Tuesday

DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS OF WHAT MAKES AIRPLANES FLIGHT

G. Tarantino Physics Education Research Unit, University of Udine, Italy

Physics of flight is usually considered an interesting topic since it involves the understanding of a common fascinating experience. Despite of this, the explanations of aerodynamic lifting force found in most textbooks are, in many cases, rough, inaccurate and incomplete. Also, the argument it is very soon neglected in the majority of introductory physics courses and teachers seem to be reluctant in treating it. As a consequence, in most cases, people ideas about lift generation are quite naive. Here, we present a comparison of different explanations of what makes an airplane fly with the effort of enhancing, in each context, the pedagogical involved aspects. The results of discussions and activities carried out during workshops in the framework of XV edition of Scientific and Technological Knowledge Diffusion Days, held in Udine, are also reported.

PT D Tuesday

THE DANGER OF MISREPRESENTATIONS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

J.Moore 1, A. Kazachkov 1, C.Willis 2 1Mathematics and Science Teaching Institute, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, USA 2Department of Physics, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, USA

Students’ misconceptions originate from a variety of sources including their cultural background and everyday practice, however teachers are often no less responsible for the erroneous views of their pupils. Even the most concerned educators are often unaware of how misleading their presentation of the studied natural phenomena and processes may be for the students. Unfortunately, most learners often have only one opportunity for formal instruction on the topic and thus retain a false, or at best a confused, understanding. Even worse, instead of supporting the earlier acquired knowledge, misrepresentations may violate the most basic scientific laws and thus challenge the integrity of students’ education. Reported examples of the minor and gross misrepresentations of some physical principles and phenomena include: • Bernoulli Principle • Surface Tension • Yearly Motion of Earth and Seasons • Resonance • and other topics, all presented with plenty of live demonstrations.

64 PT D Tuesday

TEACHING ERROR THEORY USING VIRTUAL EXPERIMENTS

S. Verbic Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation, Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro Petnica Science Center, Valjevo, Serbia and Montenegro

Undoubtedly, the best teacher of the error theory is experimental practice. However, practice has three seriously weak points: 1) Practice is expensive and time consuming. It is hard to provide opportunities for all students to design and repeat experiments as much as necessary. 2) Real experiments cannot be controlled completely. Such systems have too many parameters that make all errors to follow Gaussian profile. 3) Parameters of a real system cannot be manipulated easily. Hence, we cannot design “pathological” cases, very important for education purposes. Relatively simple way to overcome such difficulties is introduction of virtual experiments. Virtual experiment can be defined as computer programs that simulate real experiments along with pseudo-random variation of measured values according to postulated statistical error. Such experiments appear to be fertile area for investigating of error distributions, dependency of system components and testing of theoretical models. Correct estimation of an error is equally important as correct estimation of mean value. Only “pair of numbers” gives a meaning to a measurement and that is the point where science education usually fails. Formula for an error of complex system based on total differential gives a good prediction of output error only if relative errors become small and if all components happen to be independent. Virtual experiments can help developing of research intuition on such systems. Further, modeling and search for relationships between parameters can achieve higher level of reliability if prove them on virtual variants of real experiments.

PT D Tuesday

EVALUATION OF SUPERCONDUCTIVITY PROGRAMME

Erika Mechlová, Libor Koníček University of Ostrava, CZ

Superconductivity Multimedia Programme and Educational Tool were prepared in the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. Target group for this tool is secondary school teacher of physics. This tool can facilitate not only the learning activities of pupils in formal education but informal education, too. The teacher guide and multimedia CD was evaluated. The stress was given on active learning of pupils and how these materials facilitate the teacher preparation of pupils’ activities. Constructivism, cooperative and collaborative learning, inquiry-based learning were the main content of questionnaire. The evaluation of learning process of pupils is under preparation.

65 PT D Tuesday

COMPUTER SIMULATIONS AND MODELLING – COMPARING AND CONTRASTING PEDAGOGICAL OBJECTIVES

L.T.Rogers School of Education, University of Leicester, England

Computer simulations are useful tools for allowing pupils to investigate physical phenomena in a virtual world without the need of material artifacts. Teachers may choose to use simulations for a variety of different purposes, ranging from situations where there is a scarcity of physical equipment to those where there are unacceptable safety risks or where the industrial scale of a process prevents realistic investigation. In any situation the educational value of the activity usually resides in the facility for controlling parameters and variables and for studying the consequences so that information is gained about dependencies and relationships. Under skilful guidance such activities can lead to improved understandings of the physical principles of the phenomenon under investigation. Much the same may be said about modeling activities in which pupils create, adapt or elaborate mathematical models for describing physical phenomena. This paper compares the two approaches inherent in simulations and modeling systems and, having identified the distinctive pedagogical features of each, describes a new approach which seeks to integrate the attributes of both. The new approach uses software which offers the student two different user interfaces alternately or simultaneously. For a given application, one interface presents a graphical environment as a simulation of the phenomenon and complete with input and output devices for controlling and observing variables, whilst a second interface presents a symbolic modeling system whose components and functions may be modified, augmented or replaced to explore the effect of the model design on the effectiveness of the simulation. The interplay between the two interfaces seeks to maximize the learning potential normally exploited in separate software applications.

66 ABSTRACTS - Posters

P A 1 Tuesday

AN EXAMPLE OF A SYNERGETIC CONNECTION BETWEEN INFORMAL AND FORMAL TEACHING

Max Bazovsky SCHOLA LUDUS, FMFI, Commenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

Physics education is being redefined by the necessities of the modern world and by the findings of researchers in formal and informal education. In published papers, high school classes and informal summer camp SCHOLA LUDUS activities, the author has developed a layered education sequence, or unit, that consists of one to four lessons (depending on how many layers are used). The first informal part starts with a sci-fi story ( called “Einstein’s Dream, Who Is Right?) that uses some emerging technologies as a background scenario and some imagined phenomena to highlight some interesting kinematics concepts and pose questions about the motion of a) a source of some travelling causes ( e.g., electricity, heat, Tsunami waves etc.), and b) the transmission of information about the effects of those causes to observers. This is followed by the first stage of formalization in which live student simulations and measurements visually help develop a common vocabulary, as well as student understanding and explanation of the claims of the story. The middle lessons of the unit help students to develop a formal model of the story phenomena, study the model, relate it to the Doppler effect, and generalize the model further (to a generalized Doppler effect) by deconstructing the original meaning of the model parameters. The unit closes with another informal phase that applies the models previously highlighted, studied, used and developed, to different contexts of classical and modern physics (parts of: low temperature methods, medical technology, and astronomy, etc). Significance: The unit shows how informal considerations can transit smoothly in a fun way first into the first stage of formalization, and then to formal quantitative studies, that directly link to informal descriptions of current scientific interest. Students informally navigate over a large area of the physics concept network, learning connections between the examined concepts, as developed in the unit, and some of their scientific/technological uses.

P A 2 Tuesday

KINDERGARTEN OF PHYSICS – WHERE SCIENCE MEETS YOUTH

Z. Golab-Meyer, D. Sokolowska Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

In the early eighties it was born the idea of inviting young high school students, to join the Cracow School of Theoretical Physics in Zakopane. At the beginning there were just the students of so called university classes in the Cracow high school, in which physics and mathematics was taught by university scientists. From the very beginning it occurred as a very good idea and a few years later it was formalized into so called “Kindergarten of Physics” attached to Cracow School of Theoretical Physics in Zakopane. Nowadays some of students apply by themselves, others are the winners of Olympic Game in Physics, and some other competitions e.g. First Step to Nobel Prize, Physics Tournament and Small Lion. There are usually twenty-two students accompanied by two physics teachers. Many students are from small provincial cities, even villages. 67 The idea is to remind the old traditional method of teaching, meaning a close relation between the master and his disciple which proves to be the best. It is the art of the master to create an internal activity in his disciple who must think, understand and discover for himself. Very close, personal contact of young students with the top physicists is unique! In such a way physicists can learn how to popularize physics and how to communicate to very young , “fresh” people. On the other hand during the lectures as well as during the united meals and informal, back-stage meetings the students get practice in overcoming the barrier for asking questions.

P A 3 Tuesday

A UNIQUE EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME – VENUS TRANSIT 2004

S. Jejčič Technical school centre of Nova Gorica, Slovenia

On June 8 2004 a very rare astronomical event called the Venus transit occurred. Venus seen as a small dark dot thirty times smaller than the Sun was moving across the solar disk. The event lasted about 6 hours and was visible from Europe, Africa and Asia. It attracted attention of millions of people on the world. The transit was a part of unique educational programme called Venus transit 2004 (VT-2004), which was organized by important European institutions. There were nearly 30 European countries involved in this project. The main goals of the project will be presented. We will focus on the educational importance of the project: what could be done in schools at different levels, how to include this event in the curriculum, how to make correlations with history, geography, modern technology, art and sociology. We will see what was needed to participate in the project and how the real time measurements were made and how the results compared with those made in the past. The results of the project will be commented. We will also talk about the ways in which the collected data could be used in the future. In the end the observing campaign in Slovenia and the obtained results will be presented.

P A 4 Tuesday

A MATERIALS SCIENCE DIDACTIC UNIT COMBINING FORMAL AND INFORMAL LEARNING

F. Minosso 1, S. Polizzi 2, P. Riello 2 1Liceo Scientifico “G. Bruno”, Venezia, Italy 2Physical Chemistry Department, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, Italy

The paper describes a didactic unit born out of a collaboration between the Materials Science Laboratory (LabSTM) of the Venice University and the high school (Liceo Scientifico) “G. Bruno” in Venice in the frame of a project for vocational guidance and dissemination of scientific culture. Materials Science, due to its highly inter-disciplinary character, is a good starting point for giving students a united vision of science (physics, chemistry and even biology). Furthermore, its connections to technology give an easy way to grasp student’s interest. The unit has been organized around the epistemological process of “viewing” and has been enriched with different spots on research mechanisms, nanotechnology and cultural heritage preservation. To make the visit at the LabSTM as vivid as possible the activity has been subdivided into different moments lasting about half an hour each: a) a discussion on different general aspects of the research activity; b) a multi-media lesson on microscopy and microanalysis; c) a lab session at the scanning electron microscope (SEM); d) a visit to the laboratory of three different research groups; e) a reflection moment. The activities a) and b) are held in a lecture hall by two different university professors; c) and d)

68 are held by four different Ph. D. students; e) is animated moderated by the teacher. The continuous scene shifts, the exposure to young researcher and the informal environment are considered as key ingredients for the success of the whole activity. The visit at the LabSTM is prepared by the teachers at school by a couple of formal classrooms lessons, by making some physics experiments related to electrons and, finally and most important, by examining through an optical microscope the same samples which will be observed by the SEM at the LAbSTM. The three-year experimentation of the unit is analyzed by comparing the points of view of the organizers and the students.

P A 5 Tuesday

PHYSICS, RADIATIONS AND HEALTH

L. Santos, C. Baptista, C. Alves Physics Department, University of Aveiro, Portugal

The main substance of this work is to present the results of the approach of Physics relating it to Health contexts, in two levels: as a mean to efficiently reach the students in secondary school, and as a physics engineering last year project. In these two levels of learning, understanding, and applying physics concepts, we used formal and informal contexts for physics education, since we used from hospital facilities to didactic equipment, therefore exposing the students to real life events and to simulated situations. The starting point of this study is radiation. Theoretical concepts involved, experimental set ups, production, detection, effects, uses, applications and dangers are some of the topics covered in both levels. So, in secondary school we worked we a set of students that had to fulfill the objectives of the discipline in order to acquire the competences expected in their school level, and that were submitted to a different curriculum organization. The whole school year curriculum was rearranged emphasizing radiation, and building the other contents around this one. As a guide-line human health and quality of life was used. In the physics engineering degree we summed up the knowledge acquired in the previous university years, in order to be sure that radiation is “known”. Then we moved to a district Hospital to meet daily situations, namely in radiology diagnosis, and presented a new method to improve early diagnosis of breast cancer, both in an equipment set and in a simulation program. The results of this work show that, on one hand, secondary students are much more receptive to classes and spontaneously present some (on-line) research they perform on their own. Their marks improve, and they present mature behaviors concerning STS and Environment issues. On the other hand, the bridge between academic studies and real life procedures is successfully overcome, preparing new graduates to face their first job in a professional and conscientious way.

P A 6 Tuesday

CULTURAL HISTORY OF PHYSICS IN A SUBJECTIVE WAY

D. Sebestyen Kando K. Faculty, Budapest Polytechnic, Hungary

Who was the English physicist in the 19th century, whose activity expanded beyond physics; he was also painter, doctor, musician, and linguist? A. Newton, B. Huygens, C. Young, D. Fresnel. - This is one example of the questions in the exam of a new course designed for engineering students. This is the Cultural history of physics.

69 The special subjectivity in this course means that following a compulsory subject (Physics), it tries to complement it. Developing this subject, I made an effort to use my previous experience about the connection of art and physics. In the course we use a lot of information and illustrations from the internet, computer program and video film. This paper presents the curriculum of this course providing examples of what and how to teach, and also shows some questions from the exam. The history of physics can help a lot in studying the main laws of physics. It helps to raise interest; it will be easier to remember the laws of physics using associations coming from the stories. Showing the important parallel between science and art, we can confirm that there is only one integrated culture.

P A 7 Tuesday

WHEN THE INFORMAL BECOMES FORMAL ENOUGH

M. Staszel Division of Physics Education, Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University, Poland

The relatively short exposure of our society to the delights of informal education, especially of the interactive kind, causes some problems that can diminish the possible gains. The problems have to do with the attitude of schoolteachers towards what their pupils can and should do after a visit of the “scientific” type. With activities precisely dedicated to particular age and level of knowledge, the problem does not arise. As a rule, however, the offer is mixed and is addressed to a broader spectrum of visitors. My reflections are based, among others, on almost 10 years of organizing and supervising of some contributions to the Warsaw Science Festival and to Science Fair. Many teachers tend to set very formal and rather hard tasks following the visits, which are formally graded. This can actually hinder the possible benefits of the interactive science exhibitions, which are meant to inspire, to fascinate, to intrigue, but also to provide a good time. The necessity to write an essay describing and explaining all the exhibits can be daunting, especially when the physics involved is somewhat over pupils’ heads. A discussion on the role of the teachers at the interface between school and out-of-school learning environment is necessary, especially as the emerging science centers in Poland will be growing in number.

P A 8 Tuesday

A MODERN EXHIBITION OF SCIENCE FOR NEW UNDERSTANDING OF SCHOOL PHYSICS

K. Teplanova SCHOLA LUDUS, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

Considering modern exhibitions of science the expectations are very different. What does , “modern” refer to? Is it related to the way of presentation or to the modern design of stands with ICT support? Or does it refer to the content, exhibits of modern technology and facts about the latest science achievements in connection with a stream topics of present problems of mankind? Only few respondents would answer “It has old kinds of exhibits and simple experiments, but it is modern in totally new view, with new ideas, questions, context, evoking changes in knowledge structures and new ways of thinking. It is an exhibition that touches complexity, an exhibition where everybody can play, understand and wish go on! A modern exhibition that supports scientific creativity.”

70 The SCHOLA LUDUS interactive traveling exhibition LIQUIDS UNTRADITIONALLY is considered as an example. The exhibition is considered as a phenomenological introduction to mechanics, statistics and deterministic chaos. Using consistently the SCHOLA LUDUS parallel method it supports “lateral thinking”, the necessary condition for development of conceptual thinking and creativity. The exhibition learners experience a great number of complex processes and basic physical concepts in an operational way. Using some extra fantasy, the exhibits can be understood also as models for many processes of nature and society. For pleasure, but due to uncertainty in chaotic systems also for awareness of the peoples limits. To enhance the educational effect of the exhibition two short films were prepared (each of 6,5 minutes) – introductory and summary. The exhibition is used by children as well as by university students and adults, with a total of over 100.000 visitors to date. The exhibits are also used in the for pre-service and in-service teacher education. The application with respect to formal education is discussed. Accompanying programmes and materials are in development for alternative learning.

P B 9 Tuesday

QUANTIFICATION OF WATER COLOUR EFFECTS

Danica Mati Djuraki 1, Marta Klanjšek Gunde 2, Riko Jerman 3 1Biotechnical School Kranj, Kranj, Slovenia 2National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia 3Secondary School for Computing and Electrical Engineering, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The optical properties of water are denoted by refractive index n=1,33. This value is used throughout the optics and works fine for many practical purposes. However, the problem appears in connection with colours, e.g. when the rainbow is obtained using the water prism. Here, the refractive index of water is not constant but varies with wavelength of light. This is the dispersion of light in water. Pure water is a colourless liquid. It is considered to be completely transparent for the visible light. This is true as long as the water layer is thin. When it gets thicker, the blue colour of the “colourless” liquid becomes visible. This is the effect of a small absorption of light in water. The water is therefore not perfectly transparent. Both effects are usually neglected. Nevertheless, they become crucial if one would like to explain the above-mentioned effects. They are connected with colours seen due to the presence of water – therefore we apply the water colour effects. We quantify the colour effects of pure water for two examples: the water prism and the planparalel water layer. We apply the proper geometry of each example and suitable equations together with the precise optical data for water. For this purpose, the spectral complex refractive index was used. Here, n and k are the index of refraction and the extinction coefficient, respectively. The corresponding literature data were applied. The refractive index (n) diminishes very slowly and almost linearly from n=1,340 for the blue light with λ=380 nm down to the n=1,330 for the red light with λ=780 nm. We show how this small dispersion produces the remarkable display of rainbow colours when light is crossing a water prism. The extinction coefficient (k) of water ranges from 10-9 at λ=480 nm (blue light) up to 10-7 at λ=780 nm (red light). While k>0, the small amount of light is absorbed. More precisely, the red light is absorbed more intensely than the blue. Therefore the colour of sufficiently thick water layer is blue. We show how thick the layer should be to obtain a clearly observable colour effect. The origin and connections between the both effects are discussed in addition.

71 P B 10 Tuesday

VIRTUAL AND HANDS-ON EXPERIMENTS IN STATICS – BALANCE PROPERTIES OF ASYMMETRICAL BODIES

T. Ignatova 1, A. Kazachkov 2, I. Szczyrba 3 1Low Temperature Physics Institute, Kharkov, Ukraine 2Mathematics and Science Teaching Institute, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, U.S.A. 3Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO, U.S.A. The fate of the leaning Tower of Pisa has intrigued humankind for centuries. In the last several decades the efforts to rescue the Tower have often become a front-page story. There are other similar amazingly- balanced monuments, buildings, other constructions, and natural objects, that while not quite as famous, have been catching the observer’s eye all around the world as well. It is very instructional and interesting for students to find the positions of centers of gravity of these objects by applying principles of Geometry, and then using the fundamental law of Statics to decide under which circumstances a particular object can tumble down. To help students in mastering their skills in this respect, we have designed an interactive computer research program (written in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0) that allows students to determine the coordinates of the center of gravity for a variety of solid and hollow bodies resting on a horizontal or an inclined plane. Our computer simulations will illustrate how students can observe whether the center of gravity remains projected onto the object’s base while they gradually change its shape. If that is not the case, the virtual body tumbles down, similarly as does its cardboard replica in a real experiment that follows the computer simulation. In addition, an interesting live demonstration of the balance properties of triangles with hollows will be performed.

P B 11 Tuesday

ACTIVE TEACHING METHODS IN PHYSICS CLASSES

J. Jancic 1 1Gimnazija Ormoz, Slovenia

I will present the importance of active teaching methods in Physics classes, list some of these methods and show an example of a lesson in which students participate actively. Large quantity of topics and lack of time forces teachers to teach in a transmissive way. By doing that, we put aside the so called processed knowledge. Carefully planned lessons often do not reach the wanted aim. Our goal is to teach students to understand the natural phenomena, to explain them, to estimate the quantities in qualitative and quantitative way, to solve the problems expertly - basically to build the right physical concepts and use them in a new situation. Usually we do not reach our planned goals. Most of students can easily manipulate with equations but they never get to the heart of the problem. A question arises how to teach to reach the desired aims. The use of active teaching methods is the answer to the above question. I will present some active teaching methods I have used in my classes and have proven to be successful. I will also prepare detailed lesson plan with students’ worksheets on the topic of the interference. Using the autonomous learning and with the help of worksheets students demonstrate that the light is a wave motion and search for the condition of interference. They think about the wave lengths which could interfere with crystals. Optical simulation of crystal structure is used to introduce the students to Bragg’s law. This simulation is also used by students to define the symmetry and lattice distance of simulated crystal. At the same time the students are introduced with the basics of crystallography. I will also present how to produce a slide with the samples for optical simulation. In the end I want to look for the advantages and disadvantages of using active teaching methods.

72 [1] Knight, R. D.; Five Easy Lessons - Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching; Addison Wesley: San Francisco, 2004. [2] Handbook of Cooperative Learning Methods; Praeger: Westport, 1999. [3] Peklaj, C.; Sodelovalno ucenje ali kdaj vec glav vec ve; DZS: Ljubljana, 2001.

P B 12 Tuesday

MODEL OF A HUMAN EYE

Nina Jereb, Gorazd Planinšič Faculty for mathematics and physics, Slovenia

Our project shows that physics is not just »a lot of formulas«, but rather something found and used in our everyday life. We have developed a way to show the physical laws for lenses using a cross between both physics and biology. The model is simple enough that most people could create it without a problem since it is made with such objects as wine glasses, paint, tape, etc. It gives a clear demonstration of how the human eye works. It enables us to see exactly how the image is created. We suggest making a poster with instructions on how to reproduce the model. We will put additional information on how the human eye works as well and include some pictures of the model eye I made.

P B 13 Tuesday

LET’S PLAY SOUNDS

E. Rajch 2, A. Kamińska 2, G.P. Karwasz 1,2, Ł. Jasiński 2 1Faculty of Engineering, Trento University, ITALY 2Institute of Physics, Pomeranian Pedagogical Academy, POLAND

Sounds are the easiest to detect wave phenomena. Human ear is able to recognize single instruments in a symphonic orchestra, by detecting harmonic components characteristic to an instrument, i.e. performing Fourier analysis. Fourier analysis even one hundred years ago was a difficult, mechanical task. So-called König analyser was a series of empty metallic spheres, resonating at characteristic frequencies. Ten years ago, digital oscilloscopes http://polly.phys.msu.su/~zeld/oscill.html were needed to do this same. Today it is free software and cheap microphone connected to the PC input. Generators can be electronic circuits but then no didactics is inside: if we add new frequency, we (to our surprise!) find this frequency (!). We show that: 1) monochromatic generator, with slightly adjustable frequency are glasses with water [1], 2) up to 6 series of odd-like spectra can be obtained from a toy flute [2], 3) thunder drums show Bessel frequencies, open tube features, and reverberation [3], 4) three different frequencies can be obtained from an Al rod. 5) wave modulation can be done with two iron bells.

[1] E. Rajch, G. Karwasz, “Sparkling music”, http://lab.pap.edu.pl/~rajch/kieliszki , in Polish [2] G. Karwasz, E. Rajch, “Die Zauberflöte” http://lab.pap.edu.pl/~rajch/flet/, in Polish [3] E. Rajch, G.P. Karwasz. “Thunder Drums” http://lab.pap.edu.pl/~rajch/multimedia/Drums.doc, to be published

73 P B 14 Tuesday

PINK GLASSES

G. Karwasz, A. Krzysztofowicz, Ł. Kruczek Institute of Physics, Pomeranian Pedagogical Academy of Słupsk, Poland

A little ranges of the frequencies 380-760 nm is kind of electromagnetic waves which the human eye reacts. For spectral analyses needs Plucker tubes with the variety gases, spectrometer, a packet of absorption and polarisation filters. We want to show that the same can be do with uses compact disc CD, its plastic cover and sunglasses which are sale for children. CD is diffraction grating about grating constant range 1.2-1.7 micrometers (discs DVD are grating constant about 0.7-0.9 micrometers). This constant can calculated by measuring 1°, 2° and further grating order of the red laser pointer (wavelength of the emission light is usually 660-680 nm). The spectrum of the bulb and a fluorescent lamp shows that physical nature these sources is different [1]. The sunglasses are two kinds: the first is “normal” which is simply absorbs the light like absorbing filters, the seconds have the think layers reflection. Band filters are “Pink sunglasses” - with just thin layer reflection about diffraction property [2]. These type films have clearly complementary spectrums: reflection (for example, yellow colour) and transmission (deep-blue) [3].

A simple sunglasses weakens intensity of light in the sufficiently broad range of the frequencies The ones are a absorbent filters which contained the many-coloured dyes about complicated characteristics absorption [4].

[1] D. Pliszka, T. Wróblewski, M. Brozis, G. Karwasz, “Simple experiments with the sources of the light”, Physics in School, Nr 4, 2000, internet: http://zabawki.pap.edu.pl/new/files/articles/cd/cd.html [in Polish], [2] “Pink glasses”, http://zabawki.pap.edu.pl/new/files/optyka/rozokulary.html [in Polish], [3] “Golden tower”, http://zabawki.pap.edu.pl/new/files/optyka/wierza.html [in Polish], [4] “Sunglasses”, http://zabawki.pap.edu.pl/new/files/optyka/okulary-sun.html and “Fluorescent spoons” http://zabawki.pap.edu.pl/new/files/optyka/lyzeczki.html [in Polish].

P B 15 Tuesday

FRICTION HOLDING THE CLIMBER: AN EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLE FROM PHYSICS IN SPORTS

Samo Lasič and Grega Poljšak Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

To motivate students, bridges are needed between formal knowledge and everyday experience. The application of achieved formal knowledge to explain everyday phenomena is crucial for achieving motivation and interest in physics. In spirit of interdisciplinary approach examples of connection between physics and other natural sciences, such as biology or chemistry are lately found in literature. We are presenting an example from physics in sports that can be useful in stirring students’ interests and motivate them for qualitative reasoning or even for more formal approach to understand physics behind the phenomenon. Climbers use the so called belay devices, which help them to slow down a descending companion. The sliding friction involved in this process helps the belayer to hold the descending climber without huge effort. Another example is the use of rope windings on sailing boats and ships.

74 We have made a simple model of such belay device equipped with on-line data measurement. The theoretical predictions of the belay device behaviour can be tested by means of two force sensors connected to an interface. Interesting insights into the interplay between static and dynamic friction occurring during the sliding process can be revealed. The same phenomenon is responsible for example in producing sounds by a violin. Some suggestions for using the device in a classroom are given.

P B 16 Tuesday

SIMPLE EXPLANATION FOR THE PUBLIC OF SPINNING OBJECTS ON A TABLE

P.O. Nilsson 1, P. Salomonsson 2 1Department of Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden 2Department of Fundamental Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

Spinning objects have fascinated people since the earliest recorded times. For instance, we see on vases from ancient Greece (700 BC) pictures of yo-yos. The underlying mathematics is often complicated and usually the physics of rotations is left for university studies. For teaching on lower levels, as well as when communicating with the general public, we have however found that pedagogical, pictorial models without mathematics can be used successfully. We show here how one can easily explain the peculiar and surprising behaviour of various spinning objects on a table using simple drawings only. In this connection we have found some common, general mechanisms which facilitate the understanding. We will limit ourselves to five examples: an ordinary egg, the Tippe-top, the Hurricane double-sphere, a coin with a circular eccentric hole and the Celtic stone (Rattleback). During the initial phase of a rotation, inertia causes the oscillations of the centre of gravity to be small, and the point of contact with the table to slip. The torque of the corresponding friction force has a cumulative effect on the motion. Depending on the geometry of the object, as well as its temporal position on the table, the rotation axis will cut the table at one or the other side of the contact point. This factor will decide the further turning of the object. For instance, the axis of the Hurricane double-sphere rises to an angle of arcsin(2/5) = 23.6° and becomes stable there. In this situation only rolling friction occurs and as this friction is very low the object will spin extremely easily and for a long time making it possible to get rotation speeds around 200 turns per second! For the Tippe-top such a situation is not reached and it turns around 180o before it stabilizes. In this conference contribution all the objects mentioned above will be analyzed in detail as well as demonstrated in reality.

P B 17 Tuesday

WOOD HEATING AND COGENERATION

Valentin Peternel Secondary School for Technical Professions, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Households release a great amount carbon dioxide into the atmosphere via chimneys, with inevitable greenhouse effect consequences. Through simultaneous production of heat and electricity in small, local systems primary energy can be saved and emissions significantly reduced - protecting the environment and saving money. Combined heat and power, or CHP, refers to generating electricity at or near the place where it is used. CHP is also known as cogeneration. The waste heat from the electricity generation can be used for space heating, water heating, air conditioning, or for nearly any other thermal energy need. CHP units are often more than 80% efficient while the average power plant is only 33% efficient, For wood (wood pellets, wood chips) fuelled CHP in sizes below 100 kW, Stirling engines are the only feasible alternative today. There is great effort on projects to develop a micro combined heat

75 and power plant on the basis of a Stirling engine. With a rating of 1 to 3kW electrical power and up to 15kW thermal output, would be suitable for supplying individual houses. Companies promises, that in year 2007 serial wood fuelled CHP will be available on market Stirling engines are based on a closed cycle, where the working gas is alternately compressed in a cold cylinder volume and expanded in a hot cylinder volume. The advantage of the Stirling engine in comparison to internal combustion engines is that the heat is not supplied to the cycle by combustion of the fuel inside the cylinder, but transferred from the outside through a heat exchanger. How does a Stirling engine work. To answer the question, a very simple structured can Stirling engine is build, using a candle as a heat source. A main part of Stirling engine and thermodynamics processes during one cycle is described.

P B 18 Tuesday

MEASURING DENSITY OF HEAT FLOW RATE

Valentin Peternel Secondary School for Technical Professions, Ljubljana, Slovenia

When getting into the world of science and technology, the classic approach, i.e. describing the natural phenomena by means of measurable quantities, cannot be avoided. However, when dealing with light, the application of these quantities may cause problems due to different terminology in physics and technology, different characteristics and effects of individual types of light radiation and different theoretical concepts. So in physics we talk about density of heat flow rate and the technology calls it heat flux. There are various names to describe the spread of light in literature: light radiation, spread of electromagnetic flux, light incidence, photon incidence, etc., which causes even more confusion, especially with students who meet these notions for the first time. The way of dealing with light (quantum theory, wave theory, etc.) brings an additional problem when speaking of the universal classification. I see a partial solution to this problem in the application of the SIST ISO 31 standard defining the physical quantities and units. To measure physical quantities which describe light, the science uses a number of different instruments: pyranometer, pyrheliometer, goniophotometer, integrating photometer, spectral photometer, reflectometer, luxmeter, luminance meter, etc. The development of electronic measuring equipment (with the application of a microprocessor) has provided us with the possibility of data processing, data saving and transferring, as well as integrating individual measuring devices into the automatic measuring system. In the educational process, normally such instruments are not available. Therefore we often use simple physical methods, by means of which the physical background of the measuring process can be presented to students. In schools a black copper plate is normally used to measure the density of the luminous flux. The physical basis of this procedure is the application of a simplified form of the first law of thermodynamics. In doing so, we assume that the change of the internal energy of the plate is equal to the received quantity of light. By measuring the temperature on the plate surface, the incidence angle of solar radiation, time, and by means of substantial geometrical data, the density of the luminous flux can be estimated. The procedure is simple and gives acceptable estimations (results). This treatise indicates the expansion of the above-mentioned measuring procedure. As a basis the first law of thermodynamics is used. It is assumed that in the quasi-stationary state the absorbed heat equals the heat given away. The plate does not just absorb the light flow from the Sun, it also absorbs the light flow reflected from a piece of styropore and other objects in the vicinity of the measuring point. Loss of heat arises due to conductance of heat through air, natural convection, plate radiation and the light reflection from the measuring plate. Convection is a phenomenon which is usually not dealt with in secondary school as well as university physics books. For some cases of heat transfer by means of convection it is difficult to write down adequate differential equations and that is the reason for the application of the Buckingham method in such analyses. In the first phase all the independent and dependent variables are stated, and then the number of non-dimensional numbers, in which the variables

76 are grouped, is defined. On the basis of this method, the literature gives the empiric equation, which is applied at the definition of the density of the convection flux and heat transfer coefficient. On the basis of the first law of thermodynamics the density of the luminous flux can be derived and explicitly expressed by other physical quantities. The obtained equation presents the basis for indirect measuring of density of luminous flux. The measuring procedure is simple, since the measuring of the density of the luminous flux can be transferred to measuring the temperature on the plate surface, environmental temperature, time, incidental angle of the sunlight and acquisition of adequate substantial geometric data. The measuring procedure is also interesting because it includes the treatment of several physical phenomena, which are usually dealt with separately (heat conductance, convection, radiation, etc.). The treatise also gives the results of measurements carried out on 31st of July 2005 in Hrušica at the foothills of the Karavanke mountains (ϕ = 46o26’51’’, λ = 14o01’18’’, z = 621m). The measurements were executed over the day, from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. The density of the luminous flux was between 650W/m2 do 900W/m2.

P B 19 Tuesday

PHYSICS IN FUNNELS

G. P. Karwasz 1, T. Wróblewski 2, A. Niedzicka 3, W. Niedzicki 4, M. Brunato 1 1Trento University: Engineering Fac., Dept. Mathematics, Dept. Informatics, Povo, Italy 2Institute of Physics, Pomeranian Pedagogical Academy, Slupsk, Poland 3Anna Niedzicka Ambernet Sp. z o.o., Warszawa, Poland 4Dept. Mechatronics Warsaw Technical University and Polish TVd , Warszawa, Poland

GIREP’s emblem is a funnel - this seems to be a parabolic funnel. “Gravitational” funnels are well known for illustrating motion of planets or collecting spare coins at London Stansted airport. Orbits in these funnels are, to the first approximation, closed. This reflects particular form of the gravitational potential, 1/r and is important, say, for the constancy of the climate on Earth. In real gravitational funnels the orbits are not exactly closed, due to finite dimensions of coins, their spin motions and not exact 1/r potential. If you take any funnel, orbits are open immediately, not into the “first” approximation. The only other potential assuring closed orbits is the harmonic one, r2, i.e. a ball kept by springs. This is due to a particular property of the Hamiltonian for these two interactions, which is transformable into a linear function of the action [3]. A different field than 1/r explains, as shown by Einstein, the precession of the Mercury orbit. Precisely, one should speak not of the different mathematical form, but a different measure of the gravitationally deformed “r”. For computer fans we show a programme, in which one can experience difficulties in constructing a Solar system. So funnels can be used to explain Physics, not only to transfer it into pupils brains.

[1] http://www.science.unitn.it/~karwasz/vortx.html [2] http://www.science.unitn.it/~karwasz/Gravitazione.zip [3] We thank to prof. Enrico Pagani for valuable remarks

P B 20 Tuesday

AQUA LAND

Tomaž Kušar, Gregor Udovč, Jure Bajc, Barbara Rovšek Faculty of Education, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The “Chain experiment” – a long chain of mechanical contraptions that are triggered one after another – is one of the highlights of the “World year of physics” activities in Slovenia. The presented contraption

77 “Aqua land” is just one of the ten parts in a Demo chain experiment, which has been constructed by the physics students and exhibited all over Slovenia. In Aqua land many physical phenomena are observed, such as elastic clashes of small metallic balls, balance of torques, energy and force transfer with pulleys, etc. The most important part of the experiment is the water part, in which the surface tension of water is used to keep the torques in balance. By changing the surface tension by a few drops of detergent the balance is destroyed, the metallic sphere is released and the chain goes on...

P B 21 Tuesday

VACUUM BAZOOKA - EXTENDED

A. Mohorič Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The “Vacuum bazooka” is a simple and amusing experiment, which easily catches the attention of students since its power is surprising. With a few very basic steps a lot of physics can be covered [1]. We have extended the analysis by employing pressure sensors at the nozzle and at the centre of the tube. Some interesting results follow from the measurements.

[1] E. Ayars, L. Buchholtz, Analysis of the vacuum cannon, Am. J. Phys. 72 (7), 2004 (961 - 963).

P C 22 Tuesday

FORMAL AND INFORMAL ASPECTS OF PHYSICS EDUCATION IN A STUDENTS STAGE IN AN ALPINE HOSTEL

A. Audrito 1, A. Cuppari 2, T. Marino 3, G. Rinaudo 4, G. Vecco 5 1Liceo Scientifico Curie, Pinerolo, Italy 2Liceo Scientifico Ferraris, Torino, Italy 3Liceo Scientifico Curie, Grugliasco, Italy 4Physics Department, University of Torino, Italy 5A.I.F., Sezione di Settimo T., Italy

Physics is generally presented in secondary schools with attention to the formal aspects, which are considered to be essential for the fundamental preparation of the student, but often generate a kind of gap between physics in school and everyday life. To help both the students and their teachers to overcome this difficulty, we organise every year a three-day stage in an alpine hostel, which is attended both by a selected group of students from different secondary schools and by their teachers, with the aim of experimenting physics from a different perspective and in a pleasant environment. During the stage the students have the opportunity to perform different experimental activities, to play games, to explore new phenomena, to try and understand toys or devices, etc. Large autonomy and opportunities both for personal initiative and for collaboration in a team are given. Materials, ideas and suggestions for carrying out activities are provided mainly by the teachers themselves, with the help of the university students of the School for future teachers (SIS, Scuola di specializzazione per l’Insegnamento nella Scuola Secondaria), who, in this way, learn how to integrate formal and informal aspects of physics education. In the presentation, we will discuss the positive and negative aspects of the initiative and present examples of both the “formal” and “informal” aspects of the activities of the stage.

78 P C 23 Tuesday

ONLINE COURSES FOR TEACHERS AND PUPILS IN SUPERCOMET2 PROJECT

Carmen Holotescu, Timsoft, Romania

In the last decade, Computer and Internet Based Learning has become the key concept in education. The SUPERCOMET2 project started in December 2004 and runs until 2007 with financial support through the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme. SUPERCOMET2 targets on-the-job training of physics teachers through offering a new toolkit for inspiring and encouraging pupils to learn the intriguing phenomenon of superconductivity. An accompanying teacher’s guide and in-service teacher training seminar will ensure that the developed tools and methods are successfully implemented. Timsoft, an important actor in eLearning in Romania, and subcontractor in SUPERCOMET2 project, trains the Romanian teachers using a blended approach. The training program consists of: a f2f seminar, similar with those delivered by all the partners, and an online seminar. During the last one the teachers share their experience in using and testing the SUPERCOMET2 materials, and also are trained for delivering online courses or for enhancing their traditional courses using an online learning environment. The pupils from the partner schools are also provided an online space in which they use and experiment the SUPERCOMET2 materials and participate in various Physics contests. This space is facilitated by the teachers trained in the first program. The article describes these activities, and some of the issues to be addressed when building such a program, suggesting strategies for facilitation and support of learning communities, based on collaborative learning and student-centered problem solving. The online courses use eLearnTS, the online learning environment developed by Timsoft; its facilities are also presented. The experience gained by the teachers of Physics and pupils is emphasizes.

P C 24 Tuesday

USING HISTORICAL MONUMENTS FOR INFORMAL TEACHING-LEARNING PHYSICS

R. Khalili Boroujeni Ministry of Education, Organization for Educational Research and Planning, I.R.Iran

There are many amazing monuments in different places of Iran. These marvellous monuments, which provide unique opportunities to teach many basic concepts of physics, can be considered as great and real physics laboratories by their selves. Visitors can take advantage of the architecture art and physical concepts under laying in the construction to engage people to physics as a discipline and make them physics laboratories suitable for hands-on activities such as oscillation and resonance, wave and sound, echo, light and refraction, symmetry, equilibrium, work and energy.

79 P C 25 Tuesday

PUBLIC RELATION AND PHYSICS EDUCATION

K. Papp, A. Nagy University of Szeged, Department of Experimental Physics, Hungary

What determines students’ career plans? Which are the most popular subjects among secondary school pupils? Results of our empirical studies proved, that we can determine those factors, with which the negative tendency experienced both abroad and in Hungary can be influenced. Motivational strategies can help students in school situations assisting the students in a better understanding of Physics and also encouraging teachers to make the subject more interesting. As examples we present, that the usage of simple everyday objects in the Physics lesson gives a chance for the student to relate the lesson content to reality. Revival of teacher-scientists’ work from the past, building of their experimental tools have a great importance in education also as protecting traditions. Games in teaching Physics is not a novelty, as they can both raise and sustain students` interest, while examining the physical background, they can be used to raise simple and complicated issues and they also give us the opportunity to carry out qualitative or quantitative experiments. Choosing the right structure of school material is fundamental in shaping students` attitude towards a subject therefore it is essential that the Physics as a school subject adapts to the new expectations of our society. Ensuring interdisciplinarity, and conscious forming of complex scientific approach such abilities and skills can be developed, with which youngsters became adults who are able to orientate in our rapidly changing world. The realization of communication between physics education at schools and society is an urgent task nowadays. With our studies we discovered „outdoor” stages of teaching, and worked out the opportunities and forms to change the unfavourable position of physics in the opinion of teachers, parents and society. Interesting, amazing experiments, using history of science, outdoors competitive experimentation, performances in physics, several different forms of education in the town and in the region are examples of conscious communication. 2005, the World Year of Physics has given several opportunities for trying these.

P C 26 Tuesday

GROUP DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIMEDIA TRAINING COURSES BY STUDENTS AS A WAY OF ENHANCING INTEREST IN LEARNING PHYSICS

O. Syurin 1, T. Shtanko 2 1Gymnasium #14, Korchagincev, Kharkov, Ukraine 2Kharkov State Technical University of Radio-Electronics, Kharkov, Ukraine

Recently we have been observing a decrease of high school student’s interest in learning science. We offer an approach that allows to wake a positive motivation at different categories of the students to study physics. We base on inescapable requirement of each individual to achieve recognizing of the surrounding people and their steady interest to computer technologies. It’s generally known the best way to learn yourself is to teach others. So we offered to group of our school students (age 15-17) to develop multimedia training courses. We understood the main thing in this case is not so much the course, but a process of developing a course. In this offered material the ways of organization of educational activity of the students at physics lessons realizing the concept of ‘pedagogy of cooperation’ will be presented.

80 P C 27 Tuesday

SCIENCE ON THE BUS

Miha Kos¹, Gorazd Planinšič², Božo Kos, Luka Vidic¹, Samo Lasič², Riko Jerman, Oliver Mumalo, Dušan Mancej ¹ ¹ Hiša eksperimentov, Slovenian Science Centre, Slovenia ² Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The House of Experiments has initiated a project as a part of and contribution to The World Year of Physics 2005. The main goal of this project is to bring science closer to the general public. People observe strange natural phenomena all the time. They may wonder about the phenomena, but most of them never seek the explanations. We have selected 50 questions that are relevant to everyday situations, and provided short but scientifically correct and informative answers. Each question and the corresponding answers were printed on boards. We also added illustrations that bring friendliness and humour to the explanations. Questions and answers have been distributed to local city bus companies. Around 350 city buses in 7 cities across Slovenia are equipped with these “science popularisation boards”. In addition, we have provided extended explanations on the internet that will satisfy passengers who want to learn more about each topic. The experiences with the realization of the project and the response of the public will be presented at the Seminar. The project was co-sponsored by the EPS.

P D 28 Tuesday

MOVIES AND PHYSICS

Marko Budiša, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics

The movies from Hollywood and elsewhere show a unique world, full of spectacular events, shown in even more spectacular ways. Lots of fun, but how real are they?

We may speak of it, we may discuss it and some webpages(1) do this extensively, however to show a simple experiment in a classroom which will disprove the reality of moving images and attribute it to special effect fiction, or make it evident that a certain effect is in fact true and not movie magic, is much more effective than ranting about it on internet sites, in internet forums or even in a classroom.

My contribution shows a handful of such simple experiments which may be useful as demonstrations or interactive experiments in classroom.

(1) www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/

81 P D 29 Tuesday

CAN PHYSICS BECOME A SOURCE OF PASSION AND DELIGHT ?

L.V. Constantin 1, L. Dinica 2 1National College Elena Cuza, University of Bucharest, Romania 2School Inspectorate of Bucharest, Romania The subject matter named physics plays a very important role in the development technique.

For showing or revealing students that physics is present all around us, that is indispensable in day by day life, they must discover that learning physics is a source of passion and delight. Students must observe that learning this matter, they won’t obtain only a baggage of theoretical knowledge but the development of practical abilities. For realising these points, objectives students must do, not only real experiments, but virtual ones, motivation must exist in a proper and real teaching domain so that students can compete! The teacher must know to choose the best methods of teaching, evaluation so that students can manifest creative and participate directly and active at lessons. This work proposes to present these kinds of methods which can increase the quality of instructive-educative process and can attract the students in the activity of studying.

P D 30 Tuesday

SCIENCES STUDY BASED ON RECIPROCAL COMPLETION BETWEEN REAL AND VIRTUAL EXPERIMENT

L.V. Constantin 1, L. Dinica 2 1National College Elena Cuza, University of Bucharest, Romania 2School Inspectorate of Bucharest, Romania

The study of science, especially of physics is based on direct contact of student with reality, things and phenomena’s knowledge and also on experiment’s realization. Not in all cases we can make laboratory’s experiments because lack of properly devices. High costs or some dangers, which can affect students and teachers. In these conditions are recommended virtual experiments. Using specialized educational software programs the students can avoid memorizes enormous data quantity in exchange of logically thinking and information’s localization, understanding thinks and phenomena in his mind. The students have the possibility to verify problem’s solutions in experiments or design a new experiment. Although computers used in excess can cause practical computing ability’ loosing and reality investigation, can deteriorates human relations. That is way, in this work, is presented a physics lesson in which the real experiment and the virtual one complete each-other. Students have as their disposition sequences surprised or captured at the time of realising the real experiment and an educational soft. This kind of aborting a lesson supposes the increase of the interest for the students for studying, a fact reflected or proved by school results.

82 P D 31 Tuesday

APTITUDE TOWARDS THE UNDERSTAND OF PHYSICS CONTENT WITH RESPECT TO THE LEVEL OF ABSTRACTNESS OF ITS DESCRIPTION

T. Kranjc Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

When presenting physics phenomena, an old problem appears. On one hand “new” areas of physics have become part of the consciousness of general public (for example, relativity theory, quantum mechanics and with them atomic bombs and nuclear reactors, lasers, transistors, GPS, etc.) and based on those, non-physicists, too, are making conclusions, creating a “modern” view of the world. At the same time the “correct” understanding of concepts and theories from physics is becoming more and more demanding and more difficult, since the theories are getting more complex and abstract, and require more sophisticated and specialized mathematical tools. Among students of different combination majors at the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana (mathematics-technology, physics-technology, physics-chemistry, chemistry-biology and biology-home economics) we investigated how the level of abstractness of physics concepts determines the threshold of accessibility of an explanation of a phenomenon. Questionnaires given to students were to assess the knowledge and understanding of phenomena of different levels of abstractness, which were discussed at lectures. Responses show that students (especially at the lower division level) are often ready and capable of mastering the mathematical formalism and of learning explanations of physics, even though they often do not arrive to the true understanding of the physics content. In the case where an incomplete understanding leads to an inconsistent picture of physics, and students are aware of that, they are still not used to try to find a correct explanations and “figure out” the true meaning of the mathematical description and arrive to a consistent picture of physics. In the article the questionnaires and an analysis of student responses are presented.

P D 32 Tuesday

WEB-BASED MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION “SOLID STATE”

N. Nancheva, D. Kirilova Department of Physics, University of Rousse, Bulgaria

The main goal of teaching and learning physics in the field of engineering courses is deep understanding and acquisition of the physics phenomena, laws and principles. On their base the students can successfully model, analyze, syntheses, and optimize the real-word objects in the taught specialized subjects. This paper presents a web-based multimedia application “Solid state’’ that will be used for teaching and learning physics for the students from all engineering specialties at the University of Rousse. We are gathered here to share our ideas and experiences to improve physics education for the future, and this paper is focused on the use of multimedia and modern information technology. The application “Solid state” is part 7 from the set of web-based multimedia applications cover the general course of physics and is aimed at graduation students in all engineering specialities with a four years curriculum. The application can be used for distance education too. The document is available in html format and simulations and animation are based on Java applets. The lecture material is organized in four modules: Solid state structure, Band theory, Contact phenomena and Luminescence, which are linked to each other. The structure of a web-based application is presented in Fig.1.

83 Fig.1

The module Solid state structure contains: Atomic structure and bonding – types of atomic and molecular bonds, ionic bonding, covalent bonding, metallic bonding, secondary bonding, mixed bonding; Crystal structure – the space lattice and unit cells, crystal systems and Bravais lattices, principal metallic crystal structure, atom positions in cubic unit cells, direction in cubic unit cells, Miller indices for crystallographic planes in cubic unit cells, FCC, HCP and BCC crystal structures; Crystalline imperfections - vacancy, dislocations - edge, screw, mixed; Quasi-crystals; Liquid crystals; Amorphous solids; Polymeric materials; Thermal properties of solid state. The module Band theory presents: Metals, dielectrics, semiconductors; Electrical properties of materials – electrical conduction in metals, energy-band model for electrical conduction, semiconductors- intrinsic, extrinsic; photoconductivity – impurity and intrinsic; Dember` effect. The module Contact phenomena contains: contact metal-metal, contact metal- semiconductor, contact p-n semiconductors; Volta` effect; Seebeck` effect; Peltier` effect. In the module Luminescence all type of luminescence are included: photo-, hemi-, tribo-, thermo-, electro-, cathodo-, et ….Except basic theoretical parts and description of the basic physics laws, in the application are included the sections “Questions and tasks”, “Virtual laboratory”, presented by 18 applets and “Biographies”. In the application all multimedia elements have been included – text, images, animations, Java applets. The application contains and proposes a high number of traditional and interactive examples. Emphasis is put on the motivation of students and stimulating their interest in “Solid state” and generally in physics.

P D 33 Tuesday

IMPROVING ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE BY LEARNING OUTDOORS

M. Šteblaj, A. G. Blagotinšek, N. Razpet, M. Čepič, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana

In-service and pre-service teachers in kindergarten and primary school that have the opportunity to meet the field work activities have higher appreciation of science. The hypothesis was tested on a number of first year students for pre-school and primary school teachers and teachers that visit in-service training on the Faculty of Education. One group spent two days in Debeli rtič on the seaside, the second group spent two days in the Field centre Radenci on the river Kolpa. They learned about and performed various activities. Their appreciation of science before and after personal experience of the field-work activities was tested. The contribution presents and discusses a few of activities to give the impression of the field- work organization, the questionnaire and the results are presented.

84 INTERREGIONAL PROJECT EXHIBITION

INTERREG III A, ITALIA – SLOVENIA 2000/06

Physics Education innovative materials to support pre- and in-service teacher training

Marisa Michelini, Physics Department, University of Udine, Italy Gorazd Planinšič, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The project called “Physics Education innovative materials to support pre- and in-service teacher training” has been approved in the field of the Community Programme INTERREG III A ITALIA – SLOVENIJA 2000 – 2006. The University of Udine is the leader of the project, while the University of Ljubljana is the partner. The authors listed above are responsible for the scientific aspects of the project.

The project consists in the planning, validation and publication of the materials for initial and in-service training of physics’ teachers, which supports didactic innovation in mechanics, mechanics of fluids, thermodynamics, optical physics and quantum mechanics. In relation to these fields various projects are being carried out: innovative prototypal proposals on experiments and on modelling of physics’ processes; didactic paths aimed at overcoming the main difficulties encountered in the formalization of physics concepts. For each subject the attention focuses on the analysis of the following: the disciplinary knots that represent a learning difficulty for students, strategies for the experimentation and building of models which can be used to overcome such difficulties, determination of the inter-connections between the different topics through specific analyses, inter-disciplinary connections, the use of new technologies in particular ICT.

The collaboration between Italy and Slovenia on the project The need to set up collaboration between the researchers of the two institutions arose on the occasion of recent international conferences and in particular of the second international seminar organized by GIREP, which took place in Udine in September 2003. The priority aim of this project is to develop, compare and share the competencies concerning the specific thematic fields studied by each institution. The final goal is the creation of a lasting collaboration, structured as a network involving university institutions on the one hand and schools in Friuli and Slovenia on the other.

The project has now been running for only a year yet and a great amount of material has already been produced and experimented. The layout of the research, the didactic choices and the experimental approach are producing original results, which require a careful preparation of the instructions for the teacher in order to achieve their experimentation and diffusion. The collaboration between the two universities is providing further occasions for integration in the training process of teachers in Italy and Slovenia. Slovenian teachers held a course at the Specialization School for Italian Secondary School teachers, and they took Italian postgraduate students for an apprenticeship on thermodynamics and optics in Slovenian schools (in Koper). Post graduate students attending Physics Education program at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics in Ljubljana have been actively engaged in the project. Several examples of prototypal innovative proposals of experiments including the proposals for teaching strategies will be presented as a separate exhibition named “INTERREG III A Italia – Slovenija 2000 - 2006” at the 3rd International GIREP Seminar. Apart from the authors of this abstract the participating persons involved in the preparation of the exhibition are:

85 From Italy:

• Lorenzo Gianni SANTI, Ass. Prof., Phys Dep, University of Trieste • Francesca BRADAMANTE, PhD student, Phys Dep, University of Udine • Alberto STEFANEL, PhD student, Phys Dep, University of Udine • Gabriella BINDA, teacher, IC Tricesimo, UD • Vilma CAPOCCHIANI, teacher, LS Marinelli, UD • Federico CORNI, Ass Prof, Phys Dep, University of Modena e Reggio Emilia • Laura DECIO, SSIS, University of Udine • Silvia Pugliese Jona, Italian Association for Physics Teaching (AIF) • Lorenzo MARCOLINI, Local Section of AIF • Giampiero MENGHIN, teacher, SM Noale, VE • Alessandra MOSSENTA, SSIS, University of Udine • Adriana ODORICO, Faculty of Education, University of Udine • Antonella LONGO, University of Lecce • Carla Marcolongo, teacher, IC Pavia di Udine • Renzo RAGAZZON, SSIS, University of Udine • Giovanni TARANTINO, PhD student, Phys Dep, University of Udine • Italo TESTA, PhD student, Phys Dep, University of Udine and from Slovenia:

• Mojca ČEPIČ, Asoc. Prof., Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana • Samo LASIČ, Teach. Ass., Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana • Ana GOSTINČAR BLAGOTINŠEK, Teach. Ass., Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana • Mag. MARJANCA ŠTEBLAJ, Teach. Ass., Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana • Nada RAZPET, Teach. Ass., Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana • Loredana SABAZ, High School Gian Rinaldo Carli, Koper • Sonja JEJČIČ, Technical School Centre Nova Gorica • Sebastjan ZAMUDA, PhD student, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana • Nataša RAVNIKAR, PhD student, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana • Marko BUDIŠA, PhD student, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana

86 Author index

A F Agnes, C...... 23, 53 Fantoni, S...... 57 Allasia, D...... 22, 46 Fazio, C...... 51 Alves, C...... 69 Fishman, A...... 50 Audrito, A...... 78 Fornasier, P...... 63 B G Bajc, J...... 77 Giliberti, M...... 21, 38 Baptista, C...... 69 Głowacki, M...... 21, 39 Bazovsky, M...... 67 Golab-Meyer, Z...... 24, 55, 67 Bertolini, M...... 36 Gostinčar Blagotinšek, A...... 84, 86 Beurs, C. de ...... 25, 42 Gratton, G...... 37, 38, 50 Binda, G...... 86 Grifo, M...... 38 Biznarova, V...... 20, 36 Guardini, R...... 21, 36, 37, 38 Bojović, V...... 24, 57 Guastella, I...... 51 Bradamante, F...... 21, 59, 86 Brunato, M...... 77 H Budiša, M...... 81, 86 Haeusermann, G...... 22, 44 C Holotescu, C...... 79 Capocchiani, V...... 86 I Capra, N...... 20, 36, 37 Iengo, R...... 57 Cardella, M...... 40 Ignatova, T...... 45, 72 Carpineti, M...... 38 Ireson, G...... 48 Cavallini, G...... 38 Čepič, M...... 84, 86 J Cerreta, P...... 24, 56 Jamšek, J...... 44 Constantin, L.V...... 22, 62, 82 Jancic, J...... 72 Corni, F...... 25, 63, 86 Jankowski, R...... 55 Cuppari, A...... 78 Jarh, O...... 25, 43 D Jasiński, L...... 73 Jejčič, S...... 68, 86 Dąbkowska, E...... 55 Jereb, N...... 73 Danese, B...... 20, 37, 38, 50 Jerman, R...... 37, 71, 81 D’Anna, M...... 21, 60 Jurdana-Šepic, R...... 25, 40 Decio, L...... 86 Defrancesco, S...... 37, 38, 50 K Del Longo, L...... 38 Kamińska, A...... 73 Dinica, L...... 62, 82 Karbowski, A...... 55 Dirckx, J...... 50 Karwasz, G...... 22, 23, 48, 52, 73, 74, 77 Doherty, P...... 26, 33 Dvorak, L...... 27, 34, 46 Kazachkov, A...... 22, 45, 64, 72 Khalili Boroujeni, R...... 79 E Kirilova, D...... 83 Engstrøm, V...... 23, 54 Klanjšek Gunde, M...... 71 Erjavec, M...... 23, 49 Kocijancic, S...... 22, 44, 51 Euler, M...... 20, 31 Kocik, B...... 39 Koníček, L...... 21, 60, 65 Kos, B...... 81

87 Kos, M...... 25, 37, 42, 43, 81 P Koupil, J...... 22, 46 Papp, K...... 80 Kranjc, T...... 24, 56, 83 Pecori, B...... 23, 24, 45, 48, 58 Kruczek, L...... 74 Peeters, W...... 24, 48, 50 Krzysztofowicz, A...... 74 Peterman, T...... 37 Kušar, T...... 77 Peternel, V...... 22, 47, 75, 76 L Pezzi, G...... 45, 48 Pitrelli, N...... 24, 57 Lambourne, R...... 23, 32 Planinšič, G...... 25, 37, 42, 43, 73, 81, 85 Lanzinger, M...... 36, 38 Pliszka, D...... 52 Lasič, S...... 37, 74, 81, 86 Polizzi, S...... 68 Lavarian, C...... 38 Poljšak, G...... 74 Levrini, O...... 58 Pospiech, G...... 22, 53 Logiurato, F...... 24, 38, 50 Prytz, K...... 21, 61 Longo, A...... 86 Przegietka, K...... 55 Lubini, P...... 60 Pugliese Jona, S...... 86 Ludwig, N...... 38 R M Ragazzon, R...... 86 Mancej, D...... 81 Rajch, E...... 48, 52, 73 Marcolini, L...... 86 Ravnikar, N...... 86 Marcolongo, C...... 86 Razpet, N...... 84, 86 Marino, T...... 78 Riello, P...... 68 Mathelitsch, L...... 22, 52 Rinaudo, G...... 46, 78 Mati Djuraki, D...... 71 Rishpon, M...... 23, 33 Mechlova, E...... 26, 60, 65 Rodari, P...... 25, 40 Mejía, W...... 25, 41 Rogers, L...... 25, 66 Mencej, D...... 37 Rossi, A...... 58 Mendez, E...... 41 Rovšek, B...... 77 Menghin, G...... 86 Michelini, M. .... 20, 31, 47, 59, 60, 63, 85 S Milotić, B...... 40 Sabaz, L...... 21, 39, 86 Minosso, F...... 68 Salomonsson, P...... 75 Mohorič, A...... 78 Santi, L...... 86 Möllmann, K.P...... 50 Santos, L...... 69 Moore, J...... 26, 45, 64 Sayavedra-Soto, R...... 24, 58 Mossenta, A...... 86 Schlichting, H.J...... 20, 32 Mumalo, O...... 37, 81 Scott, T...... 45 N Sebestyen, D...... 69 Seied Fadaei, A...... 21, 62 Nagy, A...... 80 Shtanko, T...... 80 Nancheva, N...... 83 Sidharth, B...... 27, 35 Niedzicka, A...... 77 Służewski, K...... 55 Niedzicki, W...... 77 Sokoloff, D...... 25, 42 Nilsson, P.O...... 75 Sokolowska, D...... 67 O Španič, K...... 37 Spizzichino, A...... 58 O’Sullivan, C...... 24, 51 Staszel, M...... 70 Odorico, A...... 86 Šteblaj, M...... 84, 86 Osiński, G...... 55 Stefanel, A...... 22, 26, 47, 63, 86 Oss, S...... 37, 38, 50 Strnad, J...... 27, 34

88 Syurin, O...... 80 Szczyrba, I...... 72 T Tarabelli, R...... 36, 37 Tarantino, G...... 24, 26, 51, 64, 86 Teplanova, K...... 70 Testa, I...... 21, 60, 86 Titulaer, U.M...... 26, 33 Toglia, C.L...... 56 Tratnik, M...... 23, 54 Turlo, J...... 23, 55 U Udovč, G...... 77 V Van Dyck, D...... 50 Vaupotič, N...... 49 Vecco, G...... 78 Verbic, S...... 26, 65 Vidic, L...... 20, 37, 81 Vollmer, M...... 23, 50 W Walton, R...... 26, 34 Willis, C...... 45, 64 Wróblewski, T...... 52, 77 Z Zamuda, S...... 86 Zelenda, S...... 21, 61 Žuvic-Butorac, M...... 40

89

and

Hvala!

Thank you!

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