Development of students’ conceptual thinking by means of video analysis and interactive simulations at technical universities

AbstractVideo analysis, using the program Tracker (Open Source Physics), in the educational process introduces a new creative method of teaching physics and makes natural sciences more interesting for students. This way of exploring the laws of nature can amaze students because this illustrative and interactive educational software inspires them to think creatively, improves their performance and helps them in studying physics. This paper deals with increasing the key competencies in engineering by analysing real-life situation videos – physical problems – by means of video analysis and the modelling tools using the program Tracker and simulations of physical phenomena from The Physics Education Technology (PhET™) Project (VAS method of problem tasks). The statistical testing using the t-test confirmed the significance of the differences in the knowledge of the experimental and control groups, which were the result of interactive method application.Keywords: video analysisprogram Trackerinteractive simulationsPhET simulationsStudent's t-test AcknowledgementsThe report was created within the project from Operational Programme Education called Development of culture quality at the University of Žilina based on European standards of higher education, ITMS code 26110230060. The authors would like to thank Ms. Katarína Pažická from the Institute of Foreign languages at the University of Žilina for English language support.About the authorsPeter Hockicko is an associate professor of electro technology and materials at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Žilina (Slovakia), where he delivers courses of fundamental physics. In 1996 he graduated (MSc) at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics at the Comenius University in Bratislava. He defended his Ph.D. thesis in the field of physics of condensed matter and acoustics in 2008 at the University of Žilina. He has active research interests in forming physical concepts using video analysis and video measurements. His paper 'Attractiveness of Learning Physics by Means of Video Analysis and Modeling Tools' presented at the 40th annual SEFI conference 2012 in Thessaloniki was awarded the best paper.L′uboš Krišt′ák works as an assistant lecturer at the Department of Physics, Electrical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the Faculty of Wood Science and Technology at Technical University in Zvolen. In the last five years he was the supervisor of four science projects approved by the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and at present he is a vice-president and a co-worker of seven domestic and international science projects. He is an active member of mid-Slovak branch of the Company of Mathematicians and Physicians.Miroslav Němec works as an assistant lecturer at the Department of Physics, Electrical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the Faculty of Wood Science and Technology at Technical University in Zvolen. He is a vice-president and a co-worker of seven domestic and international science projects. He is a member of the board of international conference organized by the University in Zvolen. He is an active member of mid-Slovak branch of the Company of Mathematicians and Physicians.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Slovak Grant Agency KEGA through the projects No. 035ŽU-4/2012 and No. 011UMB-4/2012.