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Home experiments: a hands-on adaptation of the Experimental Physics II course at UFRJ for remote teaching

In May 2020, the Physics Institute of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) started a program aiming to reformulate its experimental courses to a completely remote format due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this work, we describe the results of this effort in the particular case of the Experimental Physics II course, which combines practical sessions on hydrostatics, oscillations and waves. The reformulated course focus on a “hands-on” approach, in which students were required to build their own experimental kit and perform measurements using easily accessible materials. Classes followed the inverted classroom method, in which recorded videos were watched by students previously to real-time orientation sessions. Students were evaluated based on their individual reports of each experiment, which necessarily included videos or pictures of the experimental setup and data acquisition procedure. Overall, we observed excellent results in terms of stronger commitment and enthusiasm from students in the remote version of the course as compared to the traditional one. The experimental kits and their assembly are simple enough so they can be reproduced without substantial difficulty in other universities or even in high-schools.

Keywords
Remote Teaching; Experimental Physics; Buoyancy; Harmonic Oscillations; Sound Waves


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