Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A PhET Simulation For Teaching And Learning Of Turning Effect Of Force In Physics At Secondary School Level

This paper is based on the results of a pilot study conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a PhET simulation sim called Balancing Act developed by Colorado University Boulder when it is used as a visualization tool in teaching the secondary school physics lesson Turning Effect of Force. A sample of 72 students of grade 11 from two government schools in Sri Lanka was selected for the study. This is a field study to assess the effectiveness of a teaching approach to elaborate the visualization aspect of the lesson. A pre-test and post-test experimental and control group design was used in the study. The experimental group was taught the lesson using the sim in addition to the usual classroom teaching and the control group was also taught for the same time period in the usual way without the use of sim. A set of physics questions to test the students attainment of visualizing the lesson which is called Visualization Related Test VRT in the study was used as a pre-test and a post-test. Cronbachs alpha coefficient of 0.738 showed in the pre-test administration for the VRT for all students ensured its reliability. The students in experimental group showed a 27 gain in the post-test administration of VRT compared to the pre-test while that in the control group was 2 proving the effectiveness of the new teaching approach in grasping the theories built for the purpose of explaining invisible phenomenon what is visible here is only the effects of it.