Computer assisted hands-on laboratories activities: Design, development and evaluation of instructional software for science teachers education

Relevant research has indicated that interactive engagement allows students to construct and implement appropriate mental models of physical phenomena better than lectures. Many new curricula impose an inquiry teaching approach using hands-on activities and experiments. Instructional software has been developed to support inquiry and cooperative hands-on laboratory exercises. This includes animations and videotaped experiments and deals with classical physics topics such as: Newton&s;s laws, pressure in solids, hydrostatic and air pressure, heat and methods of transfer, expansion in solids, liquids and gases, mechanical waves and sound transmission, optics and electricity. An intervention study has been carried out during the last academic year in the Pedagogical Department of the University of Athens. An initial evaluation shows that computer assisted physics laboratory, supported by the specific software, affects positively the conduct of hands-on activities, supports conceptual learning, encourages an inquiry and cooperative teaching approach, and creates positive attitudes amongst the students involved towards hands-on laboratory activities.