Scientists suggest insertion of nanoscience and technology into middle school physics

Open Access

Scientists suggest insertion of nanoscience and technology into middle school physics

Ella Yonai and Ron Blonder

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 010110 – Published 10 March 2020

Abstract

The goal of this research is to provide a rich set of connections between two fields: (i) Nanoscale science and technology (NST) and (ii) topics from a common middle school physics curriculum. NST is emerging as one of the most promising new fields of the 21st century, which is one of the many arguments for including NST topics in secondary science education. A specially designed guided discourse with NST scientists was used to produce a map of connections between the two fields. During the discourse, the scientists were presented with two sets of concepts using a visual board and were asked to find connections between them. All suggested connections and the corresponding context offered by the scientists were arranged and presented as a rich set of connections. For example, (i) the NST concept of characterization methods is connected to mechanical forces and can be explained using the example of an atomic force microscope; (ii) the NST concept of size-dependent properties was connected to 7th grade inquiry skills by explaining the size dependence of accuracy, errors, and defects. This set of connections was validated by an experienced middle school science teacher in an open discussion regarding teachers adopting and implementing the resulting insertion points for the curriculum. This resulting set of connections can be used to enrich the curriculum within the NST field. It also provides a perspective on scientists’ views regarding insertion of contemporary NST topics into physics middle school education.

Received 18 July 2019
Accepted 6 January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010110

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Concepts & principles Instructional materials development

Physics Education Research

Authors & Affiliations

Ella Yonai ^* and Ron Blonder ^†

Department of Science Teaching, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

^*Ella.yonai@weizmann.ac.il
^†Ron.Blonder@weizmann.ac.il

Article Text

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Issue

Vol. 16, Iss. 1 — January - June 2020

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Images

Figure 1
A schematic of the designed discourse board. In the white area of the board, the interviewer placed the NST concept cards during the discourse; the cards contain information about the NST concepts.
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Figure 2
The interview board at the end of the exercise. Boards of two different experts for each icon signify a connection made and explained by the expert, presenting an overall picture of one participant’s point of view.
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Figure 3
The sum of insertion points for each NST concept in the middle school physics curriculum according to grade (obtained from 12 participants).
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Figure 4
“Heat map”- the number of connections made between NST concepts and specific curricular topics. A “warmer” color (more orange) indicates more insertion points per concept and topic. Bold orange frames represent connections that were strongly supported by the teacher during the validation process. Bold blue frames represent connections the teacher opposed. No frame means the teacher agreed with the insertion point but did not make any comment on the connection during the validation process. *Quantitative tools: representing physical phenomena by formula or other mathematical expressions, for example, velocity, $V = Δ x / Δ t$ . **Qualitative tools: representing or describing physical phenomena by using natural laws. Example: the energy conservation law and how we can use it to predict in words the motion of a ball thrown vertically.
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Figure 5
A qualitative description of the NST context that was connected to a curricular topic by a concept with representative examples. Classification for “weak,” “mid,” and “strong” connections was made relative to the overall number of connections found for each topic (the numbers are presented in Fig. 4). For example, 31 connections were given for “8 electric and magnetic forces.” There was an average of 4.42 connections per NST concept. If a concept received 4 or 5 connections (around the average), it was classified as “mid”. If it received less than 4, it was classified as “weak,” more than 5, as a “strong” connection.
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Figure 6
Comparison of the study results to previous studies according to the hierarchical structures of the 7 NST essential concepts. (A) Constructed by the percent of connections given by the experts in this study (the percent in brackets). It is divided into two sides according to the theoretical, experimental nature of the context given by experts for the connections. (B) Constructed according to a review of NST secondary education literature [22]; this scheme includes an 8th concept that is not used in the current study (the making of nanotechnology).
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