Objeto de aprendizagem baseado no uso de simuladores virtuais como ferramenta de ensino de conceitos da ondulatória

Abstract

This dissertation reports the conclusions of the work developed during the National Professional Master’s Degree in Physics Teaching, held at the Federal Technological University of Paraná, campus of Medianeira. During this work, an educational product was developed and applied in the form of a virtual learning object, using virtual simulators in Java language, from the PHET-Interactive Simulations platform of the University of Colorado. Taking into account the amplitude of the contents of Physics, we select Waveform Physics as its theme, with emphasis on the Wave Amplitude and Frequency, Reflection, Diffraction and Wave Interference concepts and, for the simulations, we use wave-interference available in PhET. In order to support the elaboration of the simulation suggestions that make up the educational object, a pilot study was carried out to survey the students’ previous concepts through a questionnaire, referring to a hypothetical experiment of a faucet dripping on a container occupied by water at rest. From a qualitative analysis of the content of this first stage, we highlight the greatest difficulties encountered by the students in the description of the wave phenomenon, which contributed to the writing of the first version of the Educational Product, which refers to waves produced in water. This version was applied to a group of students for evaluation purposes. After the analysis of this evaluation we include activities of simulation of sound and light waves which make up the definitive version of the learning object together with the simulations of wave in the water. The Educational Product was applied to a group of 20 students of the 3rd Series of the night period of the High School of a State Public School. The collected data provied us a solid work which results are consistent with assertive of the Meaningful Learning Theory. We conclude that the use of this learning object as an auxiliary tool in teaching favors students’ learning, enhancing their creativity, making them researchers and protagonists of their knowledge.