Using the ELVIS II+ platform to create “learning is fun” atmosphere with the ISLE-based STEM approach

Abstract

Abstract The topic of static and dynamic electricity is an abstract concept and relatively difficult for students to understand, especially in a case when the students were only taught about the electricity as a concept of electrical current, by means of the flow of electron, using analogy, without accompanied by practical experiments. This study aims to develop a lesson in the topic of dynamic electricity in an interesting and easy to understand approach using appropriate learning media that accompanied the abstract concepts with the real practical experiments. We used the equipment of ELVIS II+ (Engineering Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite) from National Instruments to achieve the aforementioned goal. Props were designed to support various basic and advance dynamic electricity experiments. Selected topics relate to basic competencies 4.2 mandated by the ministerial regulation No. 24 in 2006 issued by the ministry of education and culture of the Republic of Indonesia (Permendikbud No. 24, 2016) exemplified by the capacitor charging and discharging experiments. It is expected that the activities would become interesting for the students since they were conducting the engineering process during the experiments that provided a fun learning. The more interesting part of the experiments was the understanding of concepts of science obtained from applying mathematics to solve differential equation problems. The application of mathematics appeared naturally when students constructing and solving the differential equations in order to understand the science behind the electrical phenomena. The most fascinating part for the students occurred when they can successfully proofed the solutions to differential equations with experimental results. Integrating the whole STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) components in the learning approach is proofed to be the key to the slogan of “learning is fun”. The experiment syntax followed the Investigation Sciences Learning Environment (ISLE) model so that the learning processes will develop thinking ability as prospective researchers in students.