Jean Uwamahoro

Physics education plays a crucial role in preparing students for success by equipping them with essential problem-solving skills. This study intended to investigate the effects of systematic physics problem-solving (SPPS) on secondary school students’ learning achievement. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design. The study participa...

Type II solar radio bursts are signatures of the coronal shocks and, therefore, particle acceleration events in the solar atmosphere and interplanetary space. Type II bursts can serve as a proxy to provide early warnings of incoming solar storm disturbances, such as geomagnetic storms and radiation storms, which may further lead to ionospheric effe...

Space weather science has been a growing field in Africa since 2007. This growth in infrastructure and human capital development has been accompanied by the deployment of ground-based observing infrastructure, most of which was donated by foreign institutions or installed and operated by foreign establishments. However, some of this equipment is no...

This study aimed to assess the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) on students’ achievement in mechanical waves among secondary schools in South Western Uganda. Four hundred and nineteen students (419) from 19 schools were involved in this study. A quasi-experimental research method was employed through Solomon's four-group design. Form six phys...

We report on the results of a study conducted to analyze and characterize the space weather consequences of CMEs as inferred from the associated interplanetary (IP) type II Solar Radio Bursts (SRBs) during part of solar cycle (SC) 24. A sample of 39 metric type II bursts with Decametric-Hectometric (DH) counterpart was analyzed. The properties of S...

Background : Regular class observations are common ways of monitoring what happens inside classrooms during the teaching and learning processes. From the start of 2020, the Ugandan Education System introduced a new curriculum focusing on active learning methods which foster learner-centered approaches, including Problem-Based Learning (PBL). Howeve...

This study sought to establish the impact of formative assessment strategies on A-level students’ conceptual understanding of modern physics in selected secondary schools in Ngoma District, Rwanda using the experimental research design and a questionnaire as data collecting instrument. The study used the sample of 160 students, including 70 student...

Type II solar radio bursts are the signatures of particle acceleration caused by shock waves in the solar atmosphere and interplanetary space. Being electromagnetic radiation that travel at the speed of light, they can serve as ground observed data to provide early notice of incoming solar storm disturbances. An observational overview of 31 Type II...

Background: Attitude is a learning scale that informs which approach should be used to call students to school. It can be seen a supporting tool that informs teachers, policymakers, and researchers of the needs for raising interest in learning a certain subject, such as physics. This study aimed at determining the effect of problem-based learning o...

This study sought to establish the effect of representations strategies on Secondary School students’ Mathematics Achievement in Unguja Island, Zanzibar. Four out of sixteen public secondary schools located in the urban district of Unguja Island were randomly selected. Two of these schools were assigned as the experimental group while the other two...

This study aimed to assess the impact of Inquiry-Based Learning using the 5E model on teacher’s practices and students’ achievement in Force and Motion in Secondary Schools in Jinja District. The study employed a quantitative research method and a pretest-posttest non-equivalent quasi-experimental research design. The study sample was one hundred f...

Professional training for in-service teachers is at an utmost level to improve their teaching practices. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the effect of professional training on in-service secondary school physics teachers' motivation to use Problem-Based Learning (PBL). A pre-and posttest quasi-experimental design was used to conduct the study...

This dataset comprises data collected from three measures; (a) 419 students who completed the mechanical waves conceptual survey (MWCS), (b) the same students (419 students) who completed the views about sciences survey (VASS), and (c) 152 physics lessons that were observed from 22 teachers using reformed teaching observation protocol (RTOP). The d...

This study aimed at analyzing the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) in improving physics students’ conceptual understanding of mechanical waves. This study used a quasiexperimental, pretest–post-test control group design with PBL instruction as a teaching intervention. The participants of this study were 239 physics students from 19 secondary...

Science teaching in general and physics teaching in particular often fail to meet the challenges of motivating and engaging learners. Consequently, students do not adequately understand concepts, leading to the poor acquisition of expected practical skills. In response to this need, we conducted a study to document physics teachers’ instructional p...

This dataset is an accumulation of data collected to test Rwandan physics students’ conceptual understanding of light phenomena and to assess instructional tools for active learning of optics. We collected and analysed data from 251 grade 11 (senior 5) students using our Light Phenomena Conceptual Assessment (LPCA) tool and from 136 grade 10 (senio...

p style="text-align: justify;">Lesson planning is considered to be an important and efficient tool for effective teaching and learning process. Preparations of effective lesson plan requires teachers to be competent in the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study investigated how the mathematics teachers’ PCK impact their competences on desi...

This study assesses the level of application of the 5E’s educational model by Rwandan physics teachers and how the model affects the learning of basic classical mechanics in secondary school physics classrooms. For this analysis, quantitative data were collected using the classroom observation tool framed at the 5E’s educational model. A sample of...

This article summarises the results of an analysis of solar radio bursts (SRBs) detected by the Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO) spectrometer hosted by the University of Rwanda. The data analysed were detected during the first year (2014–2015) of the instrument operati...

In this study, we used a research tool for measuring students’ conceptual understanding in optics, the Geometrical Optics Conceptual Understanding Test-2 (GOCUT-2), to evaluate the impact of supplementing classroom instruction with laboratory experiments, PhET simulations, or YouTube videos. This study involved students from public, urban secondary...

This paper presents the findings of a descriptive survey research that investigated what makes students dislike Mathematics and seeks potentially effective Mathematics teaching practices, to boost their interest. The study involved 94 participants, including 60 lower-level secondary school students and 34 Mathematics teachers from 5 schools in Karo...

This dataset is an accumulation of data collected to test Rwandan physics students’ conceptual understanding of light phenomena and to assess instructional tools for active learning of optics. We collected and analysed data from 251 grade 11 (senior 5) students using our Light Phenomena Conceptual Assessment (LPCA) tool and from 136 grade 10 (senio...

Solar radio type II bursts serve as early indicators of incoming geo-effective space weather events such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In order to investigate the origin of high-frequency type II bursts (HF type II bursts), we have identified 51 of them (among 180 type II bursts from SWPC reports) that are observed by ground-based Compound Astr...

This article summarizes the results of an analysis of solar radio bursts detected by the e-Compound Astronomical Low cost Low-frequency Instrument for spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (e-CALLISTO) spectrometer hosted by the University of Rwanda, College of Education. The data analysed were detected during the first year (2014–2015) of the...

This paper presents the findings of a descriptive survey research that investigated what makes students dislike Mathematics and seeks potentially effective Mathematics teaching practices, to boost their interest. The study involved 94 participants, including 60 lower-level secondary school students and 34 Mathematics teachers from 5 schools in Karo...

Classroom observation has played a role in documenting classroom practices to improve teaching and learning outcomes. This dataset allows teachers, researchers, and educational policymakers to reanalyze it depending on the interest variables and understand Rwanda's current physics education. The data was collected among qualified teachers from sele...

Solar radio bursts are often early indicators of space weather events such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this study, we determined the properties of a sample of 40 high-starting-frequency (≥ 150 MHz) type II radio bursts and the characteristics of the associated CMEs such as width, location and speed during 2010–2016. The high starting frequ...

Lesson planning is a crucial roadmap guiding the teacher before the implementation of the lesson. In the current study, we aimed at reviewing pedagogical documents used by Rwandan physics teachers. We gathered 32 lesson plans related to optics topics from five teachers and analyzed them using the lesson plan analysis protocol (LPAP) and lesson plan...

Solar radio bursts (SRBs) are the signatures of various phenomena that happen in the solar corona and interplanetary medium (IPM). In this article, we have studied the occurrence of Type III bursts and their association with the Sunspot number. This study confirms that the occurrence of Type III bursts correlates well with the Sunspot number. Furth...

Solar radio bursts (SRBs) are the signatures of various phenomenon that happen in the solar corona and interplanetary medium (IPM). In this article, we have studied occurrence of Type III bursts and their association with the Sunspot number. This study confirms that occurrence of Type III bursts correlate well with Sunspot number. Further, using th...

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming valuable tools to help improve education, especially during teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. In this regard, we conducted this study to explore the usability of ICT tools in Physics taught courses. To collect data, we used classroom obs...

Geometric Optics Conceptual Understanding Test (GOCUT) Pre-Post Test This test contains questions revealing the conceptual understanding of geometric optics. This 25 question-item multiple-choice test is expected to be accomplished within one period of 40 minutes, and it is designed to senior-4 students who are taking Physics courses based on the c...

Effective teaching of physics requires the use of well-designed and diversified instructional tools such as multimedia throughout the teaching and learning process. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Physics Educational Technology (PhET) simulations and YouTube videos to improve the learning of optics in Rwanda...

Light has the most interesting phenomena among physics concepts. We designed the light phenomena conceptual assessment (LPCA) to help teachers measure their students’ conceptual understanding of light phenomena. We expected to measure increases in student understanding of light phenomena after learning about the wave and particle nature of light in...

Effective teaching and learning of mathematics are vital not only for examination or assessment purposes but also for empowering learners to live in a modern age of science, mathematics, and engineering and enable them to role-play to the social and economic development of the developing countries and the whole world as well. This study reveals ins...

Effective teaching and learning of mathematics are vital not only for examination or assessment purposes but also for empowering learners to live in a modern age of science, mathematics, and engineering and enable them to role-play to the social and economic development of the developing countries and the whole world as well. This study reveals ins...

The first regional total electron content (TEC) model over the entire African region (known as AfriTEC model) using empirical observations is developed and presented. Artificial neural networks were used to train TEC observations obtained from Global Positioning System receivers, both on ground and onboard the Constellation Observing System for Met...

This paper describes a new neural network-based approach to estimate ionospheric critical plasma frequencies (f0F2) from GNSS-VTEC (Global Navigation Satellite System – Vertical Total Electron Content) measurements. The motivation for this work is to provide a method that is realistic and accurate for using GNSS receivers (which are far more common...

Science education in Rwandan schools still faces a number of challenges including the lack or shortage of equipment available for science experiments. This paper describes research conducted to assess the impact of using improvised versus conventional laboratory equipment in experiments. Eighty-five lower secondary school students were assessed usi...

The Sun is the major driver of space weather events, and as a result, most applications requiring modeling/forecasting of space weather phenomena depend largely on the activities of Sun. Accurate modeling of solar activity parameters like the sunspot number (SSN) is therefore considered significant for the quantitative modeling of space weather phe...

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which the making and use of improvised experiment materials contribute to students' achievement in Physics. The study used experimental research design and involved students from two Teacher Training Colleges in Rwanda. To conduct this study, a pre-test was given to students. Then, two groups w...

This study aimed at investigating the different gender attitudes and perceptions towards mathematics education. It used questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations to collect data from a sample of 150 participants including 60 females, 84 males' students, as well as 6 male mathematics teachers, who were purposefully selected. The main fin...

For the first time, empirical model of daytime vertical E×B drift based on Empirical Orthogonal functions (EOF) decomposition technique is presented. Day-to-day variability of E×B drift inferred from horizontal (H) geomagnetic field data around dip latitude for the period of 2008-2013 is used to both develop and validate the model. Results show tha...

We have established a biennial school in Africa, on fundamental physics and its applications (ASP). Fundamental physics is a good field to educate students in general science. The aim of the school is to build capacity to harvest, interpret, and exploit the results of current and future physics experiments and to increase proficiency in related app...

Until 2009, astronomy was undeveloped in Rwanda, without astronomy courses at universities and schools, astronomical facilities, or any outreach programmes. With the international year of astronomy in 2009, Dr. Pheneas Nkundabakura and Dr. Jean Uwamahoro from the KIE Maths-Physics department, both graduates from the South African NASSP Programme (...

This paper describes a neural network-based model developed to predict geomagnetic storms time K index as measured at a magnetic observatory located in Hermanus (34°25 S; 19°13 E), South Africa. The parameters used as inputs to the neural network were the solar wind particle density N, the solar wind velocity V, the interplanetary magnetic field (I...

Estimating the magnetic storm effectiveness of solar and associated interplanetary phenomena is of practical importance for space weather modelling and prediction. This article presents results of a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the probable causes of geomagnetic storms during the 11-year period of solar cycle 23: 1996–2006. Potential so...

Estimating the geoeffectiveness of solar events is of significant importance for space weather modelling and prediction. This paper describes the development of a neural network-based model for estimating the probability occurrence of geomagnetic storms following halo coronal mass ejection (CME) and related interplanetary (IP) events. This model in...

Résumé : Le projet "International Space Weather Initiative" (2010-2012), s"inscrit dans la continuité du projet Année Héliophysique Internationale AHI (2007-2009). Ces deux projets sont suivis par la commission des Nations Unis pour les applications pacifiques de la Science à l"Espace (http://www.oosa.unvienna.org). Dans notre exposé, nous présente...

This paper presents the development of a a feed forward neural network model which can be used to predict large geomagnetic disturbances (Dst less than -100 nT).Only solar wind parameters were used as inputs to train the neural network. These inputs parameters are the solar wind particle number density (N), the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) t...

More than 200 moderate to large geomagnetic storms (Dst less than -50 nT) have been inves-tigated over the 11 year period of solar cycle 23: 1996-2006. A statistical analysis was conducted correlating those geomagnetic storms to their probable solar sources with emphasis on coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The study extracts quantitative and qualitat...

This paper presents the development of a model to predict solar cycle (SC) 24 using the technique of neural networks (NNs). The model is provided with the time input parameters defining the year and the month of a particular SC, in order to characterise the temporal behaviour of sunspots as observed in the last 10 SCs. Geomagnetic activity measured...