Abstract:

The article evaluates the system of physics education at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, with the emphasis on the curricula and applied assessment processes.

The physics curricula, depending on the study branch, has been compressed to one or two semesters. During this period students should gain knowledge in the area of mechanics, electrics and magnetism, optics, acoustics, as well as thermodynamics. They also should be able to apply gained knowledge to solve practical problems related to their study area. Time factor, extend of the curricula and complete lack of understanding of the basic physics principles caused by the radical cuts in STEM education at secondary schools, make the fulfilment of the curricula almost unrealizable. What we therefore aimed at is to mediate students not only knowledge but to gain skills necessary for any scientific work: comprehend the distinction between observation and inference, being able to distinguish between the occasional role of accidental discovery in scientific investigation and the deliberate strategy of forming and testing hypothesis, to be able to ask reasonable questions ,to understand, again through specific examples, the sense in which scientific concepts and theories are mutable and provisional rather than final and unalterable, to be aware of unanswered questions that reside behind the answered ones.

For the evaluation of this shift in the education process was also inevitable to make changes in the assessment methods and processes.

The article presents experiences and case studies of physics education mainly for the area of materials science.

Keywords:

Physics, curricula, education, assessment, STEM.