Abstract

CARVALHO, Paulo Simeão; CHRISTIAN, Wolfgang  and  BELLONI, Mario. Physlets and Open Source Physics for Portuguese teachers and students. Rev. Lusófona de Educação [online]. 2013, n.25, pp.59-72. ISSN 1645-7250.

Nowadays, many teachers use in their teaching practice, educational software for teaching physics. Much of this software results in multimedia applications, where we highlight the simulations and educational videos. Despite the quality of the materials available on the Internet, one of the problems that teachers face is the frequently lack of adequate teaching suggestions of exploitation, that make use of these resources for interactive teaching tools. By Interactive Learning, we refer to “all education designed to promote conceptual learning through interactive engagement of students in activities heads-on (always) and hands-on (usually), which yield immediate feedback through discussion with peers and / or teachers” (Hake, 1998). In this context, the use of mathematical modeling related either to the algorithm behind the simulations, either as an analysis of data collected from that, is an asset in conceptual learning of students that is rarely addressed by national programs and consequently by teachers. This paper presents two projects (Physlets and Open Source Physics) to produce interactive materials, accessible via the Web and which can now be used by Portuguese pupils and teachers.

Keywords : simulations; digital library; Physlets; Open Source Physics; video modeling.

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