A guide to the didactics of biology

E-book

Jana Shepa (ed.)

The book of abstracts from the second year of the international conference Spring electrochemical meeting is composed of contributions from the participants of this student conference.

The conference consisted of one invited lecture and ten competing student lectures. The message of this meeting is to create a dialogue between students of electrochemistry and the mutual exchange of knowledge. All contributions are professionally processed and inspiring.

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E-book

Stanislav Lukáč - Ľubomír Šnajder - Ján Guniš - Zuzana Ješková

The publication is intended for researchers in didactics and teachers of mathematics and computer science. Our aim is to provide readers with a basic orientation in the issue of inquiry-based teaching, to explain and demonstrate several levels of student inquiry through examples, and to offer a classification of inquiry skills.

The core part of the publication consists of methodologies for inquiry-based teaching of specific topics from school mathematics and computer science. We present ideas for implementing inquiry activities, active work with information in solving various types of problems, and the application of modern digital technologies in exploring and discovering patterns.

The publication includes seven methodologies for teaching mathematics and eight methodologies for teaching computer science in the 1st and 2nd years of secondary school.

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Prílohy

E-book

Jana Shepa  (ed.)

The book of abstracts from 8th International Conference on Novel Materials: Fundamentals and Applications, NFA 2023 is composed of contributions from the participants of this international conference. The conference consisted of 6 invited lecture and 38 abstracts of participants. The conference is focused on novel materials and its application in various research areas. All contributions are professionally processed and inspiring.

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E-book

Jozef Strečka- Katarína Karl’ová (eds.)

Zborník obsahuje program a abstrakty workshopu s názvom: 1st Workshop on Perspective Electron Spin Systems for Future Quantum Technologies, ktorý sa bude konať 28.-29. júna 2022 v Košiciach. Workshop je organizovaný Prírodovedeckou fakultou Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach a Ústavom experimentálnej fyziky Slovenskej akadémie vied v Košiciach s finančnou podporou Agentúry na podporu výskumu a vývoja. Ústrednými témami konferencie budú súčasné problémy kvantovej fyziky - kvantovej teórie magnetizmu spinových a elektrónových štruktúr, exotických kvantových spinových stavov, kvantového previazania, kvantových fázových prechodov, topologického kvantového počítania a kvantového spracovania informácie. Účastníci workshopu budú prezentovať originálne pôvodné výsledky svojho výskumu, ktoré môžu zásadným spôsobom ovplyvniť vývoj budúcich kvantových technológií.   

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E-book

Michal Jaščur

This is a supporting text for the undergraduate students interested in quan- tum theory of magnetism. The text represents an introduction to various theoretical approaches used in this eld. It is an open material, in the sense that it will be supported by appropriate problems to be solved by student at seminars and also as a homework.

The text consists of four chapters that form closed themes of the in- troductory quantum theory of magnetism. In the rst part we explain the quantum origin of the magnetism illustrating the appearance of the ex- change interaction for the case of hydrogen molecule. The second chapter is devoted to the application of the Bogolyubov inequality to the Heisenberg model and it represents the part which is usually missing in the textbooks of magnetism. The third chapter deals with the standard spin wave-theory including the Bloch and Holstein-Primakoff a approach. Finally, we discuss the application of the Jordan-Wigner transformation to one-dimensional spin-1/2 XY model.

The primary ambition of this supportive text is to explain diverse math- ematical methods and their applications in the quantum theory of mag- netism. The text is written in the form which should be sufficient to de- velop the skills of the students up to the very high level. In fact, it is expected that students following this course will able to make their own original applications of the methods presented in this book.

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E-book

Ladislav Janovec

An enormous progress in computer technology, closely linked with advances in computational chemistry, has enabled the user to exploit the principles of quantum chemistry to elucidate the chemical phenomena.

Computational chemistry is the branch of science that requires, except an academic knowledge, software skills to fully exploit a potential of theoretical methods. The aim of this textbook is to help the user take the legendary first step in the field of computational chemistry to opening a new horizon of knowledge.

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E-book

Janka Vrláková - Stanislav Vokál

Atomic and nuclear physics are relatively young scientific disciplines forming the final part of the general physics course at the Faculty of Physics of the Jagiellonian University. Their aim is to explain the nature of the basic physical properties of atoms, atomic nucleus and elementary particles.

This is also the content of the lectures and exercises ‘General Physics IV’ in the 2nd year of the Bachelor's degree in Physics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences (PF) of the P.J. Šafárik University (UPJŠ) in Košice. They are followed by optional lectures ‘Nuclear Radiation in the Environment’, ‘Introduction to the Physics of the Microworld’ in the 3rd year of the Bachelor's degree of single-discipline study of physics, or teacher study of physics in combination with another subject, and ‘Subnuclear Physics’ in the 1st year of the Master's degree of teacher study of physics in combination with another subject.

In the aforementioned lectures, the latest experimental findings on the structure and behaviour of the microworld are presented by means of physical theories and their subsequent experimental verification in experiments.

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E-book

Ľubomír Antoni-Stanislav Krajči

An important part of theoretical computer science is the problem of Turing machines. This computational model has two basic properties: like any other computational program, the software of a Turing machine is composed of instructions, but in its case they are all of a single type. Every other (so far known) computer program can be transformed into a Turing machine program without loss of information. While the second feature reduces the question of what a calculator cannot do to the question of what a Turing machine cannot do, the first feature allows a much simpler investigation of such a question. Using this computational model, we can thus find concrete problems that no automaton can ever deal with (perhaps the most famous is the problem of the Turing machine stopping). Their existence demonstrates the fundamental limitations of (not only ideal) computational means, and thus encourages both criticality and humility in our thinking.

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E-book

Jozef Strečka

Over the past fifteen years, the course on ’Exactly Solvable Models in Statistical Physics’ has become an indispensable ground of the study programme ’Theoretical Physics’ at Faculty of Science of Pavol Jozef Šafarik University in Košice. At first, the course based on the first edition of this textbook was intended for undergraduate students only, however, I have later prepared follow-up course taught at a postgraduate level on demand of several ambitious students who wished to continue in studying this exciting research field.

It is already more than decade when our students enrolled in the study programme ’Theoretical Physics’ graduate from ’Introduction to Exactly Solvable Models in Statistical Physics’ at a master level and ’Exactly Solvable Models in Statistical Physics’ at a postgraduate level. Of course, it was necessary somehow to rearrange topics for the courses of undergraduate and postgraduate students.

More specifically, a few more challenging topics concerned with exact solutions of 2D Ising model (chapter 3) were moved to a more advanced course intended for the postgraduate students, while an introductory course intended for the undergraduate students was contrarily supplemented with a few new topics requiring the second edition of this textbook.

The second edition of this textbook thus contains a completely new chapter 4 devoted to the exact solution of the Ising model on the Bethe lattice using the method of exact recursion relations, while the chapter 5 was supplemented by exact results for ground state of a few frustrated Heisenberg spin models using the variational method. It is my hope that the next edition of this textbook will come soon and it will involve all topics specifically taught within the postgraduate course as well. 

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E-book

Jozef Strečka,Katarína Karľová

The 48th Conference of the Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics (MECO48) will be held on May 22nd-26th, 2023, in Stará Lesná, High Tatras, Slovakia. The MECO48 conference continues a long tradition of regular international meetings in the domain of statistical physics established in the early 1970s with the aim of bridging the gap between the communities of scientists from the Eastern and Western parts of Europe separated by the iron curtain.

In the modern era the MECO conferences attract attention of the community of scientists who are active in the field of statistical physics including various interdisciplinary applications to biology, medicine, geography, finance, quantum information theory, and machine learning.

The MECO48 conference is organized jointly by Faculty of Science of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Institute of Experimental Physics of Slovak Academy of Sciences in Košice, Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, University of Prešov under the financial support of Slovak Research and Development Agency (grant No. APVV-20-0150) and other sponsors.

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E-book

Tomáš Samuely

Today, scanning probe microscopes are standard tools in materials science, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. Thousands of these microscopes are in operation worldwide and are at least as common and popular as scanning electron microscopes.

Despite the vast number of newer scanning probe microscopy techniques, classical STM remains a significant and irreplaceable method, widely used, for example, in solid-state research. In this text, we will focus on both traditional and innovative STM techniques that are available and utilized in the laboratories of the Center for Low Temperature Physics in Košice.

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E-book

Rudolf Gális

The presented work provides basic knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics in a completely new multimedia format. The scope of the knowledge presented is mainly focused on stellar astrophysics and supplemented by cosmology beyond the title of the work.

A new approach in this work is the large proportion of visual materials, graphs, and video clips, contrasted with the brevity of the accompanying text. Such a form of presenting knowledge in this field is unprecedented in Slovakia, and therefore this work can be considered a completely innovative piece. It should be emphasized that the engaging form of the presented knowledge does not come at the expense of its content. The work contains all the necessary information that a physics student, especially one with a pedagogical focus, should master. The work can also be an invaluable aid to teachers in secondary and even primary schools, as well as professional astronomers in popularizing astronomical knowledge.

This suggests that the work covers a relatively wide range of needs at various institutions dealing with astronomy, from universities, through faculties of education and grammar schools, to observatories, planetariums, and astronomy clubs.

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 Ľubomír Panigaj - Peter Ľuptáčik 

(Náčrt systému a fylogenézy)

Učebný text je primárne určený pre študentov jednoodborového štúdia biológie a všeobecnej ekológie, ako aj odborom učiteľského štúdia v rôznych kombináciách s biológiou. Venuje sa v nich opisu jednotlivých skupín živočíchov, ich morfológiu a anatómiu ilustruje na obrazových materiáloch. K jednotlivým morfologickým a anatomickým štruktúram sa v texte nevyjadrujeme podrobnejšie, nakoľko text nadväzuje na predmet Porovnávacia morfológia živočíchov, kde na úrovni organológie boli tieto najvýznamnejšie štruktúry v rámci prednášok a cvičení detailne vysvetlené a opísané. Rozsah učebného textu nie je veľký, podávame v ňom základné minimum poznatkov, čo je podmienené jednak rozsahom predmetu, ktorý je len jednosemestrový, jednak tým, že ďalšie, špecializované predmety rozširujú spektrum poznatkov napr. na úrovni entomológie, hydrobiológie alebo pôdnej biológie. V zavere niektorých kapitol formulujeme niekoľko cvičných otázok, ktoré si študenti môžu na základe predchádzajúceho textu zodpovedať, s podobnými otázkami sa totiž môžu stretnúť na skúške alebo na štátniciach.

Autori

E-publication

Mária Ganajová-Ivana Sotáková-Petra Letošníková

The conference proceedings FORMATIVE 2025 – Implementing Formative Assessment in Schools Together constitute the output of an online conference organised by the Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the National Institute of Education and Youth in Bratislava, within the framework of the KEGA project No. 001UPJŠ-4/2023. These proceedings present current knowledge, experience, and examples of good practice in implementing formative assessment in primary, secondary, and university teaching, with an emphasis on the use of digital tools. The papers address the foundations of formative assessment in the context of curricular changes and the ongoing educational reform, as well as specific didactic procedures for its implementation in the teaching of science and social science subjects, including mathematics, Slovak language, and foreign languages. Particular attention is paid to the development of professional teaching competences, formative assessment strategies, providing targeted feedback, and promoting students’ active participation in the assessment process. These proceedings also present the Digilib digital library, a tool developed to support the creation and management of formative assessment processes within the school environment. This publication is intended for experts in pedagogy and didactics, teachers at all levels of education, student teachers, digital coordinators, and all those interested in educational innovation and in improving the quality of teaching through formative assessment.

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E-book

Jozef Kováčik

These "Exercise Manuals" present a concise overview of commonly used methodologies as well as progressive techniques, such as the use of liquid chromatography and fluorescence microscopy. Individual tasks were selected based on the research focus of the Department of Botany at the Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, particularly in the context of "stress physiology."

Some tasks can also be utilized within the subject "Plant Ecology." Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is typically used as a model plant for individual tasks due to its long-standing history of research at the Department of Botany and its ease of cultivation under laboratory conditions. The chapters also briefly discuss the significance of monitored parameters, principles of their determination, and metabolism (formation or degradation), aiming to indicate their mutual context.

This approach highlights that determining an individual parameter cannot provide a general explanation for the overall causes and impacts of observed changes; however, it can serve as a basis for testing hypotheses at the level of other parameters.

For deeper study of specific issues, there is an abundance of high-quality international monographs and review articles available.

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Ivan Potočňák a kol.

The textbook represents a study literature on the subject of General chemistry, which is a compulsory subject of bachelor courses in Chemistry and Chemistry -  interdisciplinary study, the first year. This textbook contains 15 + 2 chapters in the whole range of 170 pages that follow the content of lectures and by means of examples and theoretical tasks consolidate and extend knowledge gained from lectures.