Reasoning and models of talented students on electrical transport in solids,

A sample of 40 students, selected from the last two classes of Italian secondary schools to participate in a school of excellence in modern physics, after measuring resistance as a function of temperature of metals and semiconductors and Hall coefficient at room temperature, was engaged in conceptual exploration of contexts related to the nature of charge, voltage, current and electrical resistance. Results highlight that the construction of the connection between macroscopic phenomenology and microscopic models concerning electrodynamics processes is not only a success in physics, but it is also a possible way to address the widespread and persistent difficulties that students face during the building of the interpretative models.