Simulation of caliper and micrometer for teaching and assessment in virtual learning environments

This work proposes an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to support face-to-face or distance teaching of basic instrumentation – caliper and micrometer – in introductory Experimental Physics courses. The ICT consists of two simulators developed in HTML/Javascript languages with possibilities for use in any learning management system, and we have made the codes and procedures for implementation publicly available, aiming at the Moodle platform used by the Virtual Learning Environment of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). The simulators can be used both during the teaching process and in the student assessment process. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposal, we included the report of the experience of using this ICT in four course offerings for the Bachelor’s degrees in Biological Sciences, Physics, and Chemistry at the Araras campus of UFSCar. We used Delizoicov’s Three Pedagogical Moments as a teaching methodology. Finally, we argue that the ICT presented here can assist in the teaching of basic instrumentation in Physics for courses in distance, face-to-face, or hybrid modes.

Keywords
ICT for Physics teaching; Measurement instrument simulation; Virtual Learning Environment; Moodle; HTML/Javascript