Several papers have demonstrated that the student constructs conceptual schemes based on everyday life experience (preconcepts) constitute an obstacle for the scientific learning. So it is important to find strategies to make easy the transition from the everyday life schemes to scientific schemes. […]
This paper briefly describes instructional strategies based on computer simulations designed to be used by students in strict connection with laboratory activity. In the belief that computer simulations can help students to grasp the phenomenological aspect of the Physics before they arrive to a formal description of phenomena, […]
Synchronizing distant clocks at rest in the same reference frame is far from a trivial issue. A review is presented of the several problems involved and of the practical approaches adopted in the course of time. The conventionalist view is discussed, […]
An important aspect of school Physics is to show how different phenomena can be set in the framework of the same general law. In this context I propose a unified treatment of the properties of lenses and mirrors based on the concept of ideal optical system and on the thin lens (and spherical mirror) approximation that describe in a general manner the behaviour of such devices. […]