Abstract:

In this presentation I would like to discuss some of the implications of using dynamic mathematics software in physics education in upper secondary schools in Sweden.

The topic is in harmony with EU's Improving Teacher Quality Agenda (European Commission, 2010), with the Swedish National Strategy for School Digitization, and with enhanced formulations of digitization in the upper secondary school curriculum in Sweden and probably many other countries.

Is not enough just to buy computers, tablets or other digital tools in order to increase a pupils’ digital skills. You need to create a good task for the pupils. Previous studies show that the use of digital tools can help improve student outcomes by facilitating more student-active methods and student-active methods lead to better learning outcomes than more traditional methods.

Mats Brunström and Maria Fahlgren at Karlstad University have worked to develop computer-based student activities where students are given the opportunity to explore, experiment and resonate in mathematics. The dynamic mathematic program they have used is GeoGebra. Introduced in 2002 GeoGebra has a fast-growing user group with its own forums and own database of applications in mathematics and adjoining areas. We want to explore the benefits of using GeoGebra even in physics education so we have initiated a study where we analyze how pupils from an upper secondary school in Sweden interact with the software. We studied an application where the pupils examine dynamic and static friction by varying the influential variables in a systematic manner. Students worked in pairs and we video recorded the students working with the task we have created for this study. In the video analysis of student interaction, we focus on how the program supports their learning.

At the Conference on Education and New learning Technologies we would like to contribute by giving examples of how to use GeoGebra for dynamic visualization in mathematics and physics and exchange ideas about how the program can be used in teaching and didactic research.

Keywords:

Physics education, GeoGebra, dynamic mathematic program.