Abstract. Physics teaching can be made more relevant to 11-16 year-old students by setting the physics content in Earth contexts that pupils can relate to and understand. Thus the physics curriculum commonly taught to 11-16 year-olds has been analysed for appropriate Earth contexts. Some 25 contexts have been identified and each is briefly described in the following two articles. Enough detail is provided to enable physics teachers to use them in their teaching and, where practical demonstrations are available, details of these are also given. Moves towards scientific literacy in science curricula across the world will require science teaching to be set in relevant contexts in the future, and the Earth provides ideal contexts for this purpose.

Keywords: Middle, High school, Teaching/Learning/Assessment

Print publication: Issue 6 (November 2002)
Received 6 September 2002