Mark McCartney & Ken Houston University of Ulster

1. Mark McCartney & Ken Houston University of Ulster

2. Poland Ireland Italy Italy Sweden UK Partnership Duration: 10. 2002- 09. 2004 EU grant: 113000 euro 2

3. Part of: eLearning initiative within the eEurope Action Plan Socrates - Minerva Project SOCRATES: the European Community action programme in the field of education. Minerva Action Promotion ofEuropean cooperation in the fieldof: • Open and Distance Learning (ODL)and • Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) ineducation Types of supported activities: • Designing, developing and testing new methods and educational resources. • Developing information services and systems on educational methods and resources involving the use of ODL and ICT. 3

4. Strategy LEPLA combines • Web based resources • Handheld technology To provide: • relevant, simple, but non-trivial, physics experiments • supporting educational materials 4

5. Hand held technology used • Portable, compact data-loggers with compatible sensors, controlled by and used together with programmable graphing calculators or computers. • versatile, inexpensive • provide complete, modern, flexible and efficient data acquisition systems. • enables basic experiments to be performed quickly and efficiently • immediate access to the mathematical tools: modelling and data analysis become a natural part of students’ learning. • Sensors • Sonar, accelerometers, force plate • Light, temperature, sound • charge, B field, current, voltage, gas pressure…. • http://www.vernier.com/probes/ 5

6. Users and target groups • Educators and students of physics, applied mathematics and engineering at undergraduate level • Teachers and students from secondary schools • Teacher training students and teachers from in service training courses • Distance learning students • Under funded educational institutions in regions with socio-economic difficulties • Handicapped and disadvantaged students • Open for usage as a public resource - 4 language versions of LEPLA materials 6

7. Topics covered in LEPLA • upper secondary school level • introductory courses at the university undergraduate level Addressed to: • mechanics • thermodynamics • electricity& magnetism • optics • radioactivity Experiments in: Auxiliary materials: • experimental data analysis • thesaurus 7

8. Learning modules Types of modules: • Single experiment • Extension • Project Module structure • Introduction • Theoretical model • Experimental set-up and data acquisition • Sample data • Data analysis • Teacher’s guide • Additional questions and tests • Text version (PDF format) printable • References • Evaluation forms • ‘Help boxes’ 8

9. Stage of development Where we are We are getting there! • Not all modules are ready • In the middle of student & teacher evaluation of materials 9

10. Stage of development Where we are going • Complete set of 31 learning modules • Localization of vortal and material into 4 languages • Evaluation through the teaching practice • Teacher training • Preparation of ‘stand alone’ CDROM version. 10

14. www.lepla.edu.pl