Physics Education Research Laboratory

The physics research laboratory deals with the improvement of physics teaching mainly through the development of researches that allow to understand and develop innovative learning and teaching paths. Many activities have focused on teacher training and on the professional development of teachers in service, through the courses of the first SSIS and of the Active Training Internship then, with particular regard to the disciplinary and teaching laboratories. Refresher and improvement courses have been proposed following requests from groups of teachers, especially after the recent high school reform. An essential aspect of the laboratory's activities is the Scientific Degrees Plan, which has enabled funds to be developed to develop innovative laboratory activities, to try them directly in the classroom, concretely supporting the teachers who collaborate with the laboratory. Many of the available equipment, for example, the Michelson Wave Shive Machine or the Michelson interferometer, have been acquired and integrated into significant teaching activities within the PLS. To these activities are added orientation, the summer school in physics that has reached the eighth edition, the collaboration with the Sienese section of the Association for the Teaching of Physics and the organization of public conferences for the dissemination of scientific culture in the field of physics.