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B028839 - PHYSICS EDUCATION
Main information
Teaching Language
Course Content
Suggested readings
Learning Objectives
Prerequisites
Teaching Methods
Further information
Type of Assessment
Course program
Academic Year 2019-20
Course year
First year - Second Semester
Belonging Department
Physics and Astronomy
Course Type
Single education field course
Scientific Area
FIS/08 - PHYSICS TEACHING AND HISTORY OF PHYSICS
Credits
6
Teaching Hours
48
Teaching Term
24/02/2020 ⇒ 12/06/2020
Attendance required
No
Type of Evaluation
Final Grade
Course Content
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Course program
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Lectureship
Teaching Language
Italian
Course Content
Historical introduction. Error analysis. Educational experiments on classical and modern physics.
Suggested readings (Search our library's catalogue)
John R. Taylor, An Introduction to Error Analysis, second edition, University Science Books.
Short notes on the proposed experiments will be delivered during the course.
Short notes on the proposed experiments will be delivered during the course.
Learning Objectives
Make the physics student reflect on the didactics in the high school, also evaluating the methods and the essential contents to be transmitted.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism at the level of a University first-year course.
Teaching Methods
Lectures and lab exercises (6 CFU = 48 h).
Further information
Office hours: by appointment with the teacher.
Type of Assessment
Oral exam on the contents of the course. The student’s ability to reflect on the teaching effects of the proposed experiments will be evaluated.
Course program
1) Historical introduction on the physics of Galilei: free-fall motion, inclined plane, buoyancy, scaling laws, telescope. How to use some Galilean experiments in teaching.
2) Measurement uncertainties: systematic and random errors, a priori and a posteriori estimates. The normal distribution.
3) The physics laboratory in the secondary school, with demonstrative experiments:
- Mechanics: the inclined plane (check of the uniformly accelerated motion) and the pendulum (measurement of the gravitational acceleration).
- Waves: acoustic beats, measurement of the speed of sound.
- Fluids: experiment on the Boyle-Mariotte law, measurement of the surface tension of water, experiments on Stokes' law and Mohr's balance.
- Optics: measurement of the refractive index of a glass, measurement of the focal length of a converging lens, measurement of the speed of light.
- Thermodynamics: the mechanical equivalent of heat.
- Electromagnetism: DC and AC circuits, resonant circuits, radio, diode and triode.
- Atomic physics and quantum mechanics: measurement of the electron charge (Millikan's experiment), measurement of the electron charge/mass ratio (Thomson's experiment) and measurement of the Planck constant (through the photoelectric effect).
2) Measurement uncertainties: systematic and random errors, a priori and a posteriori estimates. The normal distribution.
3) The physics laboratory in the secondary school, with demonstrative experiments:
- Mechanics: the inclined plane (check of the uniformly accelerated motion) and the pendulum (measurement of the gravitational acceleration).
- Waves: acoustic beats, measurement of the speed of sound.
- Fluids: experiment on the Boyle-Mariotte law, measurement of the surface tension of water, experiments on Stokes' law and Mohr's balance.
- Optics: measurement of the refractive index of a glass, measurement of the focal length of a converging lens, measurement of the speed of light.
- Thermodynamics: the mechanical equivalent of heat.
- Electromagnetism: DC and AC circuits, resonant circuits, radio, diode and triode.
- Atomic physics and quantum mechanics: measurement of the electron charge (Millikan's experiment), measurement of the electron charge/mass ratio (Thomson's experiment) and measurement of the Planck constant (through the photoelectric effect).