Students' stimulation to experiments through learning activities

Abstract

Experimental activity should currently be a regular part of physics lessons in primary and secondary schools. Since the dominant element in the teaching of physics is the active learning of the students, the students must be involved in experimental activity; therefore we focus on stimulating students to experimental activity through stimuli. We aim to propose and verify methods of stimulating pupils to experimental activity. From the analysis of various sources, we compiled a set of stimuli, which include concept cartoons, role-playing, escape rooms, and a physics game. These stimuli, which are supposed to induce in pupils the need to prove their claims and carry out experiments, we verified in pilot tests the ability to encourage pupils to experiment. In the text, we describe individual stimuli and the procedure for introducing them into the teaching process. We also present samples from the observation of lessons from two elementary schools where students worked with the given stimuli. We describe the achieved and planned sub-goals so that we can use them to fulfil the main goal.