The role of mathematics for physics teaching and understanding

That mathematics is the “language of physics” implies that both areas are deeply interconnected, such that often no separation between “pure” mathematics and “pure” physics is possible. To clarify their interplay a technical and a structural role of mathematics can be distinguished. A thorough understanding of this twofold role in physics is also important for shaping physics education especially with respect to teaching the nature of physics. Herewith the teachers and their pedagogical content knowledge play an important role. Therefore we develop a model of PCK concerning the interplay of mathematics and physics in order to provide a theoretical framework for the views and teaching strategies of teachers. In an exploratory study four teachers from Germany and four teachers from Israel have been interviewed concerning their views and its transfer to teaching physics. Here we describe the results from Germany. Besides general views and knowledge held by all or nearly all teachers we also observe specific individual focus depending on the teachers’ background and experiences. The results fit well into the derived model of PCK

Sex- and Diet-Specific Changes of Imprinted Gene Expression and DNA Methylation in Mouse Placenta under a High-Fat Diet

Changes in imprinted gene dosage in the placenta may compromise the prenatal control of nutritional resources. Indeed monoallelic behaviour and sensitivity to changes in regional epigenetic state render imprinted genes both vulnerable and adaptable

History and Philosophy of Science: A Lever to Teach Energy at High School

International audienceIn this paper, we present and discuss a teaching strategy for the concept of energy at high school based on history and philosophy of science (HPS) and dealing with Joule’s experiment (Joule J. Philos Mag 3(31):173–176, 1847a) and Rankine’s definition (Rankine W. Edinburgh New Philos J 3:121–141, 1855). This sequence has been developed and implemented in the frame of a collaborative and iterative work involving researchers and teachers. On the one hand, we investigated the extent to which it makes sense for teachers to introduce HPS in their teaching of energy. Video recordings of classroom practices and semi-structured interviews show that HPS can help teachers to think and develop links between the different activities dealing with energy; moreover, they consider the activities based on HPS both as a very good means for raising students’ interest in energy and as helping them to understand this concept. On the other hand, we assessed students’ understanding of energy using a quantitative method based on pre- and post-tests along with qualitative analysis of videos produced by students. The outcomes suggest that the teaching strategy was effective for many students regarding their understanding of both the notion of energy transformation and the principle of energy conservation. In the light of these outcomes, we discuss the possible contribution of HPS for conceiving new strategies for science teaching