Project VLAB-FIS: a novel approach to engage students on experimental work in Physics

Abstract

Abstract Experimental work is very useful for motivating high school students towards science, leverage learning and also for developing procedural skills. Teachers usually provide their students with protocols of the experiments and expect to obtain good results from this practice, but students must be prepared before going to the lab in order to successfully accomplish the experimental work. The project VLAB-FIS is based on introductory videos that give a holistic view of the experimental works, facilitating a prior understanding of the experiments and their corresponding conceptual goals. The approach is complemented by video recordings of the experiments and computational simulations, for an inclusive participation of all students regardless of reading or physical disabilities. The project was presented to physics teachers in a workshop to better understand the feasibility of the project in Portuguese secondary schools from the teachers’ viewpoint. Teachers’ feedback shows that they consider the project useful as support for the preparation of laboratory classes.