1,721,105 research outputs found
Experience gravity in the classroom using the rubber sheet: An educational proposal from the collaboration between university and school
No full textTeaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this context, general relativity (GR) occupies a prominent place, since it is related to astonishing scientific results, such as the first image of a black hole or the discovery of gravitational waves. In this paper we describe an educational proposal aimed at teaching GR in high schools in a fun and playful way using the so-called rubber sheet analogy. We present a set of instructions to build a simple and low-cost space-time simulator, and a series of related educational cards that guide the teacher in the implementation of the activities step by step. This work is the result of a long and productive debate among Italian high school teachers who have collaborated for many years with the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University in Rome. As our proposal relies on the collaboration with the final users, we believe that it will meet their needs and expectations, and it will help to treat GR in high school more and more over time
Students’ understanding of gravity using the rubber sheet analogy: an Italian experience
No full textGeneral relativity (GR) represents the most recent theory of gravity, on which all modern astrophysics is based, including some of the most astonishing results of physics research. Nevertheless, its study is limited to university courses, while being ignored at high-school level. To introduce GR in high school, one of the approaches that can be used is the so-called rubber sheet analogy (RSA), i.e. comparing space-time to a rubber sheet that deforms under a weight. In this paper, we analyse the efficacy of an activity for high-school students held at the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Roma Tre University that adopts the RSA to address several topics related to gravity. We present the results of the questionnaires we administered to over 150 Italian high-school students to investigate their understanding of the topics treated
Trattare la gravità a scuola attraverso lo spaziotempo
No full textLa Relativit`a Generale `e la teoria pi`u moderna della gravit`a, che spiega innumerevoli fenomeni. Nonostante ci`o, essa non `e abiltualmente trattata nella
scuola secondaria superiore. In questo articolo proponiamo una modalit`a di formazione docenti che ha l’obiettivo di renderli autonomi e confidenti nell’introdurre
la Relativit`a Generale in classe attraverso il concetto di spazio-tempo e l’uso di un
telo elastico. Tale modalit`a `e stata prima testata nell’ambito delle attivit`a PLS
dedicate agli studenti portate avanti dal Dipartimento, e poi inserita nelle iniziative PLS di sviluppo professionale dei docenti. Attraverso una lunga e proficua
discussione con i docenti in servizio, abbiamo quindi sviluppato e ottimizzato la
modalit`a di formazione docenti, definendo le linee guida e i materiali necessari per
trattare diversi fenomeni legati alla gravit`a. Per raggiungere anche docenti non
appartenenti alle nostre scuole partner PLS, abbiamo infine raccolto tutti i materiali in un manuale gratuito, che pu`o essere usato come formazione autonoma.General Relativity is the most modern theory of gravity and allows
to explain several phenomena. However, it is not usually treated in high school.
In this paper we propose a teacher training activity that aims at making them
autonomous and confident in introducing General Relativity in their classrooms
making use of the concept of space-time and a rubber sheet. This activity we developed was first tested among the PLS activities dedicated to students carried on
by the Department, and then added to the PLS initiatives addressed to teachers.
After a long and productive debate with high school teachers, we optimized our
teacher training activity, defining guidelines, materials, videos and images necessary to treat different phenomena related to gravity. In order to reach teachers
not belonging to our PLS partners, we finally collected all the materials developed
in an open access manual, that can be used as a standalone training
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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