Hands-on experiments in the interactive physics laboratory: A study of students’ intrinsic motivation

Abstract

Abstract Experiments in different forms can be suitable tools how to increase students’ interest in physics. However, educators discuss which ways of experimenting are the most beneficial for these purposes. At our department, two different forms of physics experiments are offered to upper secondary students – students’ hands-on experimental work and physics demonstration shows where the students watch experiments conducted by a lecturer. Our research aims primarily at students’ feedback about their immediate attitudes towards the hands-on experimenting and differences in perception of this experimenting and watching the lecture demonstrations. For collecting data we used a questionnaire based on Intrinsic Motivation Inventory.