Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews: The Story of An Image

This is a book review of Shaina Hammerman, Silver Screen, Hasidic Jews: The Story of An Image (Indiana University Press, 2018)

Confessions of a converted lecturer *

The introductory physics course often is one of the biggest hurdles in the academic career of a student. For a sizable number of students, the course leaves a permanent sense of frustration. I have only to tell people I am a physicist to hear grumblings about high school or college physics. This general sense of frustration with introductory physics is widespread among non-physics majors required to take physics courses. Even physics majors are frequently dissatisfied with their introductory courses, and a large fraction of students initially interested in physics end up majoring in a different field. What have we done to make it that way, and can we do something about it? Or should we just ignore this phenomenon and concentrate on teaching the successful student who is going on to a career in science? An eye opener Frustration with introductory physics courses has been commented on since the days of Maxwell and has recently been widely publicized by Sheila Tobias, who asked a number of graduate students in the humanities and social sciences to audit introductory science courses and describe their impressions. [1] The result of this survey is a book that paints a bleak picture of introductory science education. One may be tempted to brush off This paper, which accompanies a lecture delivered in May 2007 in Oporto, Portugal, is adapte

Near-Zero Index Photonic Crystals with Directive Bound States in the Continuum

Near-zero-index platforms arise as a new opportunity for light manipulation with boosting of optical nonlinearities, transmission properties in waveguides and constant phase distribution. In addition, they represent a solution to impedance mismatch faced in photonic circuitry offering several applications in quantum photonics, communication and sensing. However, their realization is limited to availability of materials that could exhibit such low-index. For materials used in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths, the intrinsic losses annihilate most of near-zero index properties. The design of all-dielectric photonic crystals with specific electromagnetic modes overcame the issue of intrinsic losses while showing effective mode index near-zero. Nonetheless, these modes strongly radiate to the surrounding environment, greatly limiting the devices applications. Here, we explore a novel all-dielectric photonic crystal structure that is able to sustain effective near-zero-index modes coupled to directive bound-states in the continuum in order to decrease radiative losses, opening extraordinary opportunities for radiation manipulation in nanophotonic circuits. Moreover, its relatively simple design and phase stability facilitates integration and reproducibility with other photonic components

Peut-on apprendre sans désapprendre?

L’un des principaux objectifs de l’enseignement des sciences est d’aider les étudiants à modifier leur vision du monde. Cela est particulièrement important en physique, car les étudiants ont souvent des idées préconçues qui vont à l’encontre de ce qu’on tente de leur enseigner, précisément en ce qui concerne les concepts newtoniens. Parmi ces «  conceptions erronées  » documentées depuis des décennies, on estime qu’un grand nombre sont profondément ancrées dans leur esprit et difficiles à modifier. Les auteurs de cet article présentent quelques résultats issus d’une recherche qu’ils ont menée, découvertes qui ont transformé leur propre perception de la façon dont les étudiants apprennent la physique. Plusieurs des idées soumises ici pourraient aussi s’appliquer à d’autres disciplines, que ce soit dans un programme préuniversitaire ou technique

Reducing the gender gap in students’ physics self-efficacy in a team- and project-based introductory physics class

Self-efficacy represents an individual’s belief that he or she can perform a particular task in a given domain. It is a strong predictor for performance and persistence in STEM education. Research shows that there is a large and persistent gender gap in student self-efficacy in STEM academic disciplines. In some cases, active teaching strategies have been shown to positively affect physics self-efficacy but it is unclear how this impact differs between men and women. In this study, we investigate the impact of a physics class taught with active teaching strategies on students’ self-reported physics self-efficacy and how this impact varies across gender lines. We measured the change in physics self-efficacy over four different dimensions; conceptual understanding, problem-solving, lab and hands-on activities, and collaborative work. We report three main findings. First, the initial physics self-efficacy gender gap disappeared by the end of the semester. Second, female students’ self-efficacy improved significantly, whereas there was no significant change in the self-efficacy of the male students. Third, the gender gaps in the conceptual understanding and problem-solving dimensions in particular, were significantly reduced. This study represents an initial step towards understanding the influence of active teaching strategies can have on reducing the self-efficacy gender gap