Microcontrollers in Physics education: a circuit simulation ... - ICL

Conference ICL2010
September 15 -17, 2010 Hasselt, Belgium
did succeed to give the in-parallel (as opposed to in-line) connection and b) When children
work individually (as it was done in a previous trial of the on-line material) they collected
from the table with the materials some cables and light bulb holders, but none asked for a
second battery, while when working in pairs, they all collected cables, light bulb holder and
an additional battery. Children in Greece are not used to work in pairs. Perhaps when they
were asked to make a second light bulb illuminate, they interpreted the task as “the other child
should make his/her own circuit”. Consequently, when children worked in pairs, the
researcher had to withdraw the extra batteries from their tables and re-pose the question.
Another interesting result is that most of the children faced difficulties when they were asked
to create in-series (as opposed to parallel) connections in the lab. Students faced difficulties
even after they had seen the relevant video. Many of them faced problems even after a long
analysis on how they should do it.
Time was needed in order to explain to the students what the electrons are. Perhaps a new
educational device (or a computer-based learning environment) simulating the nuclei and the
electrons, and the way they are connected with each other in order to create atoms, would be
very helpful.
Although students were unfamiliar with the research method, they expressed no objections to
filing-in the pre-test and the post-test, which is a surprising result in itself. Students asked
details about the device, and they wanted to see the back of it, trying to understand how it
works.
As far as the new device is concerned, children faced no difficulties in using it. Students
responded quite well to the new teaching approach with the use of the new device. They were
truly enthusiastic, and pleased by their experience. They found the new teaching approach and
the use of the new device interesting, and would like to see other scientific topics been taught
using similar approaches.
Despite the fact that (macroscopically) the present research can only be considered as
preliminary, it would seem to indicate, nevertheless, that it helps students’ ideas move
towards the scientifically correct ones.
Nevertheless, more research is surely needed using this new teaching approach aided by the
new device testing students of various ages, and from various geographical areas.
Rererences:
[1] Niedderer H., and Goldberg F., Learning pathway and knowledge construction in electric circuits,
Paper presented at “European Conference on Research in Science Education” University of Leeds,
(1995)
[2] Shipstone D., Pupils‘ understanding of simple, electrical circuit, Physics Education, 23, (1988)
[3] Garyfallidou D. M., “A novel computer based environment designed to teach electric circuits”,
International Conference ICL 2009 the challenges of Life Long Learning, in Auer M ed., Kassel
University Press, ISBN 987-3-89958-481-3, total pages 9
[4] Ioannidis G. S. and Garyfallidou D. M., Education using information and communication technology
(ICT), and ICT education: categories methods and trends, In: Auer M. and Auer U. (Eds.) Proc.
ICL2001 workshop: “Interactive Computer aided Learning, Experiences and visions”, Villach, Austria,
Kassel University Press, (2001) ISBN 3-933146-67-4
ICL 2010 Proceedings – Page 420
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