Abstract
The concept of light and especially its nature is one of the most difficult topics to teach in science. Students’ misinterpretations and alternative ideas, regarding light, are numerous and this is because students have some perceptions that usually come into conflict with scientific concepts. The phenomena of interaction of light with matter could be interpreted by introducing the quantum nature of light into the teaching process. The creation of a modeling application is considered necessary in order to visualize the entity of light, based on quantum mechanics, and also to understand its properties and the relationships or rules that govern or influence it. Based on the above, the purpose of this paper is to use the widespread Scratch visual programming language in order to introduce the teaching of the quantum nature of light and to investigate the optimization of learning outcomes in understanding the phenomena of the interaction of light with matter. Our research sample consists of 50 high school students, aged thirteen and fourteen, coming from two different classes. The research approach included students’ ideas detection, a teaching intervention and checking of the results. A mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative) was followed for triangulation purposes, validity and reliability of the research. Results revealed that the use of the Scratch programming language was efficiently exploited for the creation of modeling applications and helped the students to clarify, interpret and describe the daily phenomena of interaction of light with matter.
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This paper has been financed by the funding programme “MEDICUS”, of the University of Patras.
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Mitrakas, N., Tsihouridis, C., Batsila, M., Vavougios, D. (2023). Electromagnetic Waves and Their Quantum Nature. Starting from “Scratch” …. In: Auer, M.E., Pachatz, W., Rüütmann, T. (eds) Learning in the Age of Digital and Green Transition. ICL 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 633. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26876-2_69
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