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This paper presents the results of a six-year project aimed at observing how two different methods of teaching university physics (traditional and active method) affect the conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. The study included 826 first-year university students. The FCI instrument was used for Pre and Post testing. For the traditional method of learning physics in all studies, the Hake’s normalized gain (g) is in the range of 0.04 to 0.06. With the active learning method, characterized by experimentation and discussion, students of all studies performed with significant g values in the range of 0.30 to 0.40.

This article presents personal experiences of active learning students from Food Technology, an undergraduate university study in a single intensive semester course of physics. The research was conducted in the academic years of 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 at the Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, University of Split. The active learning took place during laboratory exercises as part of the Physics course, enriched by the educational intervention that includes simple physical experiments and discussions. In this study, students were using sequences of active learning: (1) Predict–Observe-Explain and (2) Observe– Explain–Predict–Test. Those learning sequences activate existing students’ knowledge and test it by comparing predicted and observed experiments. These sequences were carried out by using simple experiments which include physical phenomena. Alternative learning concepts are well known to students and their written reports evidently show positive perception of active learning method and teaching procedures. All students indicated a positive attitude towards main features of the new learning method: deeper understanding of the physical laws, increased active involvement through discussion and experimentation, as well as change the perception of physical laws applicable to common, real-life experiences. A detailed analysis of students' comments resulted in a list of favourite simple experiments as Strange balance, Crushed can, Bernoulli’s principle – Chimney and they are presented in more detail in this paper.

This research presents a different approach to the problem of determining the elasticity constant of steel springs. Elongation of the spring is measured using the ultrasound sensor and a controller board in the appropriate computer environment. Arduino provides the ability for constructing a device with the goal of connecting the computer and the physical world, otherwise known as the „Internet of things.” Because of that, and its simplicity as well as its versatility, Arduino has great potential to be used for teaching in STEM fields. We showcase this new paradigm in teaching physics by connecting natural sciences, modern electronics, information, and communication technology.

Blockchain was introduced in the White Paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and in a short time it found multiple applications in modern society. It is fundamental technology for almost all cryptocurrencies. Nowadays it is used in various areas, especially in the financial sector. If properly analysed, blockchain can be important source of information. This was motivation to start development of application which would represent blockchain data in a form suitable for statistical analysis. With this application, analysing blockchain data will be much easier. Also, application would provide synthesized data for various purposes. In this paper, blockchain data structure is described, statistical methods that could be applied in blockchain analysis are suggested, and design of application model is presented.

Financijska pismenost osposobljava nas da donesemo ispravne financijske odluke u svakodnevnom životu, a to su odluke vezane uz način štednje, trošenja novca, ali i način na koji ćemo ostvarivati prinose. U svijetu je uočen trend smanjenja uobičajenog načina zapošljavanja preko ugovora o radu. U Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama je u 2017. godini udio samostalnih djelatnika odnosno “freelancera” bio iznad 35 %, a do 2028. godine očekuje se da će njihov broj po prvi put biti veći od broja zaposlenih osoba preko uobičajenog ugovora o radu. U Hrvatskoj je taj udio još uvijek mnogo manji, ali i kod nas se bilježi porast broja samostalnih djelatnika. Osim do sada uobičajenih načina rada preko ugovora o djelu ili autorskog ugovora, u posljednje vrijeme velik broj mladih ljudi radi preko tzv. “paušalnog obrta”. Razlozi zbog kojih se odlučuju na takve oblike rada su različiti: od manjih izdvajanja za doprinose i poreze do činjenice da se velik broj mladih ljudi ne želi vezati za jednog poslodavca, već želi veću slobodu u izboru posla, radnog vremena, broja klijenata itd. Kao posljedica veće slobode dolazi i manja radna sigurnost. U ovom radu bit će prikazan usporedan obračun od bruto do neto primitka osobe koja radi preko paušalnog obrta, ugovora o radu, ugovora o djelu i autorskog ugovora. Dobit ćemo odgovor na pitanje gdje je točna granica financijske isplativosti otvaranja svog obrta u odnosu na zaposlenje preko ugovora o radu. Da bi uspješno usvojili ovu temu, učenici trebaju poznavati samo osnove postotnog računa. Optimalno doba kada bi učenici trebali biti upoznati s prednostima i nedostacima koje pruža paušalni obrt završni je razred srednje škole.

We are surrounded by cheap measuring instruments that can be used to teach physics. The goal of every professor today is too cheaply and simply prove the laws physics using measuring devices. Optical mouse can be easily turned into a stopwatch. It captures a large amount of data in a short period of time, using programs such as the Cronocomando, Stopwatch, zap_ura or Mouse Motion. Optical mouse can be used to study various types of movements and positions in real time with greater accuracy than a ticker timer. In this work we will determine the acceleration of an object in free fall using an optical mouse.