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Bernat Martínez Sebastià: Physics teacher and teacher trainer

Science & ICT Teacher trainer at CEFIRE (Centre for Professional Development, Innovation and Teaching Resources), Benidorm, Spain.

Mini-units for primary school science

I have a strong believe that primary school science is a crucial stage for deciding future interest of students towards science. So, in my opinion, rising standards at this level is a very important task. In this website it is accomplished through the use of flash simulations for describing natural phenomena (greenhouse effect, water cycle). These simulations are accompanied by practical exercises and some assessment questions.

A teaching-learning sequence in astronomy
(Sun-Earth-Moon model)

Astronomy is taught in Spanish secondary schools as an optional subject. This website presents a teaching-learning sequence for this subject. The didactic al approach is based in my own results of research in astronomy education. The ICT approach uses a web format presentation which includes texts, images, Internet resources and quicktime videos. The Spanish Ministry of Education has awarded this project in the 2003 contest for multimedia teaching materials.

Interactive Physics Course

A very well known website in Spain is the Angel Franco’s Interactive Physics Course. This is a general Physics course, which covers from simple concepts such as motion in one dimension to more complex ones such as energy bands in solids. The interactivity is achieved through 472 applets inserted in the web pages, containing simulations of physical systems, lab tests, experiments of great historical relevance, interactive problems, fun problems, etc.

Leonardo, the interactive virtual science museum


This museum built by Giuseppe Zito contains 1114 applet classified in 527 categories. The presentation of the material is in Italian but almost all resources are in English. As the author says” the main purpose is an invitation to explore by yourself the huge number of wonderful resources available on-line and a tribute to the wonderful people that are making these resources available”.


Bibliography on Students' and Teachers' Conceptions and Science Education

When planning teaching is recommended to take into account that students enter into classroom with their own ideas about natural phenomena. To help to know more about such ideas in a particular topic I use the STCSE bibliography. It attempts to document research on teaching and learning science with a certain emphasis on research from constructivist perspectives. The sources are the leading journals and publications on teaching and learning science, proceedings, conference papers and occasional papers in English and German. It includes more than 6000 entries.