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Guiding Physics Teachers by Following in Galileo’s Footsteps

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Abstract

Many physics learners take the specific mathematical representations they are using as part of their learning and doing physics for granted. The paper addresses this problem by highlighting two goals. The first is to show how a historical investigation from history of science can be transformed into a concrete lesson plan in physics, in a physics teacher education program. The second is to explore the role of mathematical representations in scientific inquiry and discuss the educational affordances of historical case studies in explicating this role in preservice and in-service physics teacher education. The historical artifact that formed the basis of the lesson is a page cataloged as “folio 116v” that contains Galileo’s authentic laboratory notes and calculations written at the time he made his revolutionary discoveries on freely falling objects and projectile motion. To understand and reproduce Galileo’s authentic notes, students must first become explicitly aware that the mathematical tools and representations available in his time were radically different from the tools and representations available to physics learners now. The activity thus sparked discussions and reflections on the meanings and implications of mathematical representations in learning and doing physics.

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Notes

  1. It might be a good idea at this stage to make sure the students realize that the ball encounters air resistance during its motion, but that this does not significantly affect either its motion on the inclined plane or its projectile motion (free fall).

  2. As was the case with v ∝ t, Galileo’s not entirely satisfactory attempt to prove his “postulate” elicited considerable criticism, for example, from Descartes.

  3. All the units are in punti. One punti equals about 0.95 mm.

  4. The calculation is a simplification of what Galileo essentially did. His actual division calculations can be found in Hill (1986, p. 287).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Maayan Schvartzer & Shulamit Kapon

  2. The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Michael Elazar

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  1. Maayan Schvartzer
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  2. Michael Elazar
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  3. Shulamit Kapon
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Correspondence to Shulamit Kapon.

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Schvartzer, M., Elazar, M. & Kapon, S. Guiding Physics Teachers by Following in Galileo’s Footsteps. Sci & Educ 30, 165–179 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-020-00160-4

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