This article reports the results of two questionnaires on the backgrounds, attidudes and expectations of a substantial group of young science and mathematics teacher enroled in a university based specialisation course. The composition of the group can be confidently considered typical of the Italian situation, […]
The skills of freshmen mathematics majors, in interpreting graphs of basic mathematical functions, kinematical graphs and the language of motion were investigated by means of three multiple choice questionnaires with open comments. The unidimensional analyses of each student’s answers and their correlations show context-dependence of skills: in particular the malhematical abilities are not entirely transferred to the physics context. […]
Simple quantitative experiments on thermal expansion (solids, liquids and gases). Bonacini Prize, 1990/91. The article describes the apparatus which 12 year old students used to measure the expansion of metal rods and rubber bands and briefly discusses results. […]
The article describes some simple low cost experiments with easily available red and green lasers and diffraction gratings. […]
Some experiments with home-made HT superconductors are reported. […]
A variety of phenomena in which sliding friction between bodies having some degree of elasticity is present exhibit stick-slip motion. We describe a simple device that allows to analyse this kind of dynamics and we present a wide set of possible experimental observations and measurements. […]