Impact of the Use of the Physics Crocodile Simulator in the Teaching and Learning of Electricity in High School (Morocco)

Abstract

The integration of Information and Communication Technologies in education is no longer a "pedagogical luxury" also a search for human learning settings that are compatible with today's students' experiences. Computer animations and simulations are the most used technological tools for educational purposes, especially with the lack of experimental equipment in school laboratories, the use of interactive simulations has emerged as a real competitor to the real experience, and an effective alternative to traditional practices. This work aims to study the impact of the use of the simulator crocodile Physics 605, on the understanding and learning of students in the second year of the scientific baccalaureate option physical sciences at the high school Abdellah Laroui of the city of Fez. A comparative study was conducted between interactive simulations using the Physics crocodile simulator and the real experience, considering the acquisition and application of cognitive skills as a key performance indicator. The experiment took place with the adoption of a pre-test and post-test method with an experiment group (25 students) and a simulation group (25 students), the data were then analyzed using the statistical analysis program SPSS v 21, for the analysis of quantitative data, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests of independent samples were used. At the end of the session, we invited the students of the simulation group (25 students) to answer on the directive survey questions (closed questions). In addition, the directive type interview (open questions) was conducted with the teachers (10) of physical sciences of the high school Abdellah Laroui of the city of Fez, moreover the data were processed by the software SPHINX v5. The results of the descriptive statistics show that the Physics crocodile simulator has a remarkable effect on the acquisition and application of new knowledge in the lesson on the RC dipole (series association of an ohmic conductor of resistance R and a capacitor of capacitance C); these effects are comparable to those in the real experiment. In addition, the results obtained showed a considerable improvement in some other indicators such as motivation, engagement, and interaction among students compared to the classical method.