Eureka! Institutional Repository

The smartphone is ubiquitous nowadays and is probably the most common portable electronic device on the planet. Its most common use is communication, browsing the Internet and as an audio and video device. Yet the wide variety of built-in sensors makes it a mobile pocket lab that could in many cases replace expensive and bulky devices in the Physics lab, while overturning and giving a new dimension to science teaching. In the last decade, suggestions and ideas for measuring with the help of internal sensors of a smartphone, such as speed, acceleration, sound and magnet volume, brightness, etc. have indeed increased. However, despite the large number of experimental designs proposed, there is a lack of empirical research that will substantiate the pedagogical and high added value of the smartphone by its use as an experimental measurement tool in the Science Laboratory. The present study aims to enrich the relevant literature with the results of an empirical study among approximately 70 students in year three of lower secondary school. Initially, the results of a bibliographic overview of proposals and pilot experiments on the exploitation of smartphones at the Laboratory of Natural Sciences are summarized. Next is presented the microstructure of a mini-lesson aiming at answering research questions concerning both the learning outcomes of using a smartphone in teaching oscillation of a pendulum, and the students’ attitudes towards using a smartphone in teaching and assessing them in this particular section. Common low-cost smartphones and two free apps were used for this purpose; the Physics Toolbox Suite for teaching oscillation and Socrative for real-time evaluation process. The results highlight the positive response of students to the use of the smartphone in teaching and assessment, which should be taken into account by educational planners. At the same time, however, they also highlight a number of technical problems that are manageable and yet not capable of reversing the benefits of the pedagogical value of smartphones.