New Perspectives in Science Education

Based on my expertise gained in more than 20 years professional carrier as teacher and pedagogical advisor, it has become clear that all classes should be made more colourful, attractive and interactive, independently of the teaching level (higher education or lower educational level [1]), and of the type of the subjects.
Analysing students’ attitude to work in details, I also concluded that student’s motivation in STEM learning and teaching should be enhanced. I have found that students of every class need more fun, they need more attractive and interactive activities where they can be involved and take part with pleasure. Members of this generation should be prepared to be active learners; they should follow the general path and steps of inquiry and research: make observations, form hypotheses, do a test or experiment and make reflections, conclusions.
In order to improve our students’ key competencies we should let them bring their devices [1] (“Bring Your Own Devices” - BYOD), and use them for educational activities (assessments, hands-on experiments, measurements, simulation, etc). During the pandemic period another method had to be introduced: teleconferencing, performed with MS TEAMS or ZOOM (delivering lectures and talking about simulated events explaining a physical phenomenon).
The aim of this work is to share some good adaptable examples, resources and methods prepared to enhance students’ motivation, or present different types of educational methods like cooperation, project method or peer instruction, flip classroom [2] etc. Each example has already been used, or will be used shortly in Physics Education at high schools and college BSc level.
Some activities include gamification (“Escape room”) and group-work activities, contain students’ and teachers’ guides and self-evaluation tools, like multiple choice questions, interactive exercises with simulation, theoretical exercises etc. All examples are related to study of the basic laws of Physics with more fun and enthusiasm.
Students should leave high schools, universities and colleges with an adequate knowledge and with applicable skills in STEM, therefore we should give them adequate skills and adaptable procedures.

Keywords: BYOD, experiments, simulation, video, digital escape room.

References:

1. B. Jarosievitz (2016): BYOD and Turn to your Neighbours, In: Studies from Education and Society Edited by Tibor János Karlovitz; International Research Institute, pp. 67-72. ISBN: 978-80-89691-38-8
2. B. Jarosievitz (2017): Physics Teaching activities and resources used innovatively in higher education, In: Informatika.47., pp.33-40.