Abstract:

In this article, we focus on the important role of supplementary education for students who are starting university education, i.e. students before entering the first year. In the long term, students who come to study at our university are shown to have significant deficiencies in the fundamentals of mathematics and physics. One of the possible solutions to this problem was to supplement the lack of freshmen knowledge at the beginning of their studies through preparatory courses that are aimed at teaching mathematics and physics.
The preparatory Course of Mathematics and the Course of Physics we offered the students for the first time eight years ago. The courses were held every year before the start of the first semester of the academic year. The Course of Mathematics and the Course of Physics can be attended voluntarily by students of any faculty of the University of Žilina. The preparatory courses in previous years were mainly attended by students of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Courses are meant to serve to supplement basic knowledge in these areas and to increase the knowledge level of students. The Course of Physics that we will cover in this article consisted of twenty lessons per week during which we covered the following topics: physics units, kinematics, dynamics, gravity, and molecular physics.
During the previous years (from 2016 to 2022) we regularly verified the level of students' physics knowledge before the course and after completing the course. The results of student testing show that participation of students in a summer Course in Physics before the winter semester starts is an appropriate way in which students of the University of Žilina can succeed in their upcoming studies at the university.
In this article, we describe the method of testing which we used of ascertaining the level of knowledge of the students and also we describe the results of the testing. We use the standardized Force Concept Inventory (FCI) pre-test and post-test as a suitable tool to assess the level of knowledge of students. The FCI test is the mostly used conceptual test concerning introductory mechanics concepts.

Keywords:

STEM education, Force Concept Inventory test, supplementary education.