Abstract:

In physics education, computer simulations increase students’ interest in physics phenomena and laws taught at the course and enhance their learning. In this paper we present the computer simulation elaborated for the study of damped oscillations in a series RLC circuit. This computer simulation is addressed to 1st year students at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Building Services of “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University, Iasi (Romania). The virtual experiment is conducted using the JavaScript language with the new facilities brought about by the HTML5 standard. Further, a statistical study was implemented to assess how the computer simulation improved students’ learning. We compare the grades of the students that had the option to make a selection about using the computer simulation (Group 1 made up by 116 students) with students that did not have this option (Group 2 made up by 51 students). Students’ learning was assessed by a laboratory quiz of 20 questions on their laboratory work. This laboratory quiz was applied to both Group 1 and Group 2 after students worked in the physics laboratory. The laboratory work was scored and contributed with 40 % to the final exam grade. A t- test between the grades of the Group 1 and the Group 2 points out that there is a statistically important difference in favor of Group 1 (the corresponding p value is equal to 0.00124). The results of the statistical survey show that the computer simulation of damped oscillations in a series RLC circuit is a useful tool for improving engineering students' learning. Using this computer simulation, students got better grades at laboratory tests and in final exams, increased their mean of the grades, and made faster progress in understanding damped electromagnetic oscillations and their applications in Civil Engineering. The computer simulation can also be used in the virtual physics laboratory and more than half of the students improved their scores because have worked in the virtual physics laboratory.

Keywords:

Computer simulation, damped oscillations, RLC circuit, improving learning, statistical survey, HTML5, JavaScript, virtual physics laboratory.