We present an educational path on the magnetic vector potential A addressed to undergraduate students and to pre-service physics teachers. Starting from the generalized Ampère-Laplace law, in the framework of a slowly varying time-dependent field approximation, the magnetic vector potential is written in terms of its empirical referent, i. e. the conduction current. Therefore, once the currents are known, our approach allows a clear and univocal physical determination of A, overcoming the mathematical indeterminacy due to the gauge transformations. We have no need to fix a gauge, since for slowly varying time-dependent electric and magnetic fields, the "natural" gauge for A is the Coulomb one. We stress the difference between our approach and those usually presented in the literature. Finally, a physical interpretation of the magnetic vector potential is discussed and some examples of calculation of A are analysed.

Undergraduate students often encounter great difficulties in understanding Ohm's law and electrical circuits. Considering the widespread students' beliefs and their common mistakes, as they come out from the literature and our teaching experience, we think that a relevant source of these problems comes from the fact that electrical circuits are generally treated separately from the other topics of electromagnetism, with poor reference to the circulation of the electric field. We present here a way to deal with electrical circuits that could help students to overcome their difficulties. In our approach, the electric field is the protagonist and the mathematical tool the students are asked to use is its circulation. In the light of the circulation of the electric field, the experimental Ohm's law is revisited, the concept of electromotive force is discussed and some suggestions to eliminate common misconceptions about the role of a battery in a circuit are presented.

A vast scientific literature in physics education documents a general widespread difficulty in dealing with Electro-Magnetic Induction (EMI) at various levels of instruction. But, at the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of research that compares difficulties about EMI at different educational degrees. We discuss here a case study about Italian high school, graduate students' and teacher's conceptualization of some aspects of EMI as a function of the sample instruction level. We analyse the answers to a multiple choice written questionnaire, adapted from the literature and given to a total of 49 participants. Some difficulties, emerged during the exams of university students while discussing their final project concerning a didactical path about EMI for secondary school, are also analysed. We find that some deep misunderstandings are common at all levels of education and probably come from the very poor link, generally presented in teaching EMI, between the Faraday's flux law and the Lorentz force

We discuss a study about Italian upper secondary school, undergraduate and graduate students’ and teacher’s misunderstanding in dealing with electromagnetic induction. We suspect that most difficulties, that we found substantially common at all levels of education, come from the very poor link, generally presented in teaching, between the Faraday’s law and the Lorentz force. We also suggest that the understanding of inductive phenomena/problems/exercises could benefit from taking into account also the magnetic vector potential “point of view”.

A survey we carried out in upper secondary schools showed that the majority of the students consider physics as an important resource, yet as essentially connected to technology in strict terms, and not contributing “culture”, being too difficult a subject. Its appreciation tends to fade as their education progresses through the grades. The search for physics communication methods to increase interest and motivation among students prompted the Department of Physics at the University of Milan to establish the Laboratory of ScienzATeatro (SAT) in 2004. Up to May 2010, SAT staged three shows and one lesson-show having physics as a main theme, for students attending any grades at school. Good indicators of the efficacy of those shows are: the number of repeats (256 of them up to May 2010), the reputation of the theatres in which they were performed, and the results of two surveys on the achievement of the goals, which saw the participation of over 50 classes each.