Abstract:

Interest and experimental work are important keys to learning physics. However, physics is becoming an increasingly important part of basic education: not an exclusive education for future scientists, but a fundamental one in today’s science-oriented society. Recently, teachers have had to transfer experimental work to an online learning environment, which has been challenging because the implementation of experimental work has been limited to online experiments. Unfortunately, this is also the case with face-to-face teaching, as the knowledge areas are broad but the number of school hours for physics is small. An interactive strategy that could help to overcome this limitation to some extent is the use of augmented reality (AR). It is an area of growing interest to promote comprehensive learning. It could also help students with special educational needs, who have been particularly neglected in the Covid era. One way to adapt materials for them is to create interactive materials. A necessary and essential condition for the creation of high-quality i-materials is the definition of specific requirements such as accessibility, usability, clarity, professional and didactically well-prepared content using the latest information processing technologies, etc. The above issues are addressed in the Erasmus+ projects with grant number 2020-1-SK01-KA201-078391 (ARphymedes – AR physics made for students) and grant number 2020-1-SK01-KA226-SCH-094415 (ARphymedes Plus – AR physics made for students with special educational needs). The paper presents the projects, the project consortium, the objectives, and the material developed, and adds an evaluation of the outputs that incorporate AR from the perspective of the different stakeholders.

Keywords:

Augmented reality, learning and teaching materials, physics education, project, special educational needs.