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Project teaching beyond Physics: Integrating Arduino to the laboratory

Conference Paper · June 2016

DOI: 10.1109/TAEE.2016.7528376

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Clovis A Petry Fernando Santana Pacheco

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 Project Teaching beyond Physics: Integrating
Arduino to the Laboratory
Abstract—This work reports a joint project executed by This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we
the Department of Electronics of a Federal Institution in Brazil describe the set of experiments we run, including detailed
and a high school. During the second semester of 2015, we information about schematics, code, and activities for some of
accomplished a set of Physics experiments in the areas of the experiments. Section III reports the post-course survey
Optics, Thermodynamics, and Waves. The Arduino platform students answered, with discussion about the results in Section
was part of the acquisition and control setup for a set of IV. Conclusions and perspectives for future work are discussed
experiments. Two hundred students from six classes took part in Section V.
in the activities. A post-course survey indicates that students
appreciated the project, with more than 94% of them II. DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK
answering that experiments were “interesting” or “very
interesting”. A. Overview of the experiments
During the three years of high school in Brazil, Physics
Keywords—Arduino; data acquisition; Physics teaching; content is usually divided into Mechanics (1st year),
laboratory. Thermodynamics, Optics, and Waves in the 2nd year, and
Electricity in the 3rd. This work was focused on the 2nd year,
I. INTRODUCTION because this is a critical age, when students should reflect about
their future career, and they still have time to study. Based on
Over the years, research works have demonstrated the the content established for the year, we set up a set of 11
importance of experimental activities for Physics teaching [1- laboratory sessions during the second semester of 2015. The
2], specially when integrating computational tools. In the sequence of the sessions is as follows:
specific case of Brazil, high school is seen as a critical period,
with demands to teach for the tests (“vestibular”, the entrance • Exp. 1 – Fundamentals of geometric optics
examination for higher education in Brazil), and at the same
• Exp. 2 – Reflection of light
time, prepare students for work life [1,2]. In the traditional
approach, students have to memorize many information and are • Exp. 3 – Refraction of light
prepared for the test. They usually do not question concepts
and do not link Physics concepts with technology and real life • Exp. 4 – Spherical lens
[2]. Unfortunately, results are not good: the drop rate is high • Exp. 5 – Temperature
for this level of education [TODOSPELAEDUCACAO] and
international assessments show that students do not grasp an • Exp. 6 – Sensible and latent heat
understanding of science [4]. Some initiatives try to change this
situation, however, due to lack of funding and support, teachers • Exp. 7 – Thermal expansion in solids and liquids
go back to the traditional approach. Physics education should • Exp. 8 – Heat propagation
be student-centered, developing skills of modeling,
argumentation, communication, experimentation [2,5]. • Exp. 9 – Waves
Laboratory work is very important for this, specially if it goes • Exp. 10 – Acoustics
beyond a closed experimental procedure. Opportunities for
discussion, together with links to real life are very important • Exp. 11 – Photovoltaic energy
for meaningful learning.
For the Physics laboratory, some companies offer
equipment for data acquisition. However, the cost is not
affordable for most of Brazilian schools. Arduino [6] is a low
cost, open source platform, that can be used for input reading
and output control. Digital and analog sensors can be part of a
setup as well as LEDs, motors, and heating elements.
This work reports a joint project executed by the
Department of Electronics of a Federal Institution in Brazil and
a high school. The project goals were: to contribute to students'
success and to stimulate the interest for STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects, particularly for
Electronics and Computing, by using the Arduino platform Fig. 1. Color palette from a computer program and formation
[6,7]. from primary colors.

This work was funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq),
through Grant 420494/2013-8.
 The last activity is not part of the formal content for the 2nd
year, but we decided to include some topic about electricity to
motivate students for the following year. It is also an area of
our specialty and we had all the material to make the session.
Each experiment included a guide with the practical
procedure and the relation with theory. A report should be
delivered in the following class. We tried to keep experiments
and theoretical classes at the same pace.
Two hundred students from six classes took part in the
activities. Each class group was split into 6 smaller groups in
the Physics laboratory located at the school. Due to restrictions
in funding, some experiments dealt with demonstrations,
because we had only one set of experimental material.
However, many of the sessions involved active participation of
the students, since we could manage to use Arduino as a data
acquisition and control system. Students could change some
parameters in the Arduino code and check the results.

B. Activities
We show in this section some of the activities. In the 1st
session, the topic was Fundamentals of geometric optics. We
discussed very briefly about color formation, asking students
about palettes in computer programs (Fig. 1), and presented
Arduino as the platform for the experiments.
Using a RGB LED (Fig. 2), students should check how to Fig. 3. Code for the first experiment with colors.
obtain a new color from primary colors. We discussed what the
255 and 0 mean in the code and why the LED has 4 connectors.
In the code, they should set values to get different colors (Fig.
3). Fig. 4 shows one image captured by students.

Fig. 4. Generating different colors with Arduino and a RGB

LED.

Fig. 2. Schematics for the first experiment, using a RGB LED.

In the code (Fig. 6), they learned about if command and
how to adjust the threshold to avoid false readings from the
A very interesting discussion about the perception of colors
LDR.
followed the experiment. How to mix correctly the colors was
also an issue, since it is possible to visualize each individual
LED inside the package.
Students should prepare a report at the end of the session,
and answer some questions like the meaning of each letter in
RGB and the connection with LCD displays.
In the second session, the theme was Reflection of light.
We started with a demonstration of how the perception of color
is changed when the light source is different. We illuminated
objects with four different lamps: incandescent, compact
fluorescent, LED, and halogen. We discussed about color and Fig. 5. Schematics for the second experiment about
also about energy efficiency. transmitting information with light.
For the hands-on part, students were challenged to transmit
information using light: each group had a laser pointer and a Students were also able to check how a optic fiber works,
LDR, and they should send a message using Morse code and since we had light sources and a short piece of optic fiber for
be able to decode it from the signal received in the LDR. An each group.
LED was also available to get an easier reading (Fig. 5).
 Fig. 8. Frame of a video capture in session 9 showing a
longitudinal wave.

Fig. 6. Code for the second experiment about transmitting

information with light.

Thermodynamics was studied in the experiments 5 to 8. In

session 6, we discussed about sensible and latent heat. A
temperature sensor (DS18B20) sent data to Arduino, and the
code converted showed it in the computer screen through a
serial interface. In the previous experiment, they should set the Fig. 9. Polystyrene balls moving over a speaker during
conversion equations for Kelvin, Celsius and Fahrenheit scales. experiment 10.
In the 6th session, the sensor was attached to an ice cube
(Fig. 7). The cube was heated and students should keep track of
the temperature along time. At the end, the data was used to
plot a graph. We discussed about the regions in the graph
related to sensible and latent heat.

Fig. 7. Temperature sensor attached to an ice cube in

experiment 6. Fig. 10. Code for experiment 10 about waves.

Regarding the theme of Waves, in session 9 students could
change the frequency of a signal sent to a buzzer connected to
Arduino. They were challenged to create some music, and they
could look for melodies and note sequences in the internet.
Besides that, a demonstration with a long spring (3 meters
long) allowed us to show the concepts of period, frequency,
amplitude, and wavelength. Fig. 9 shows a frame of a video
captured by students.
We also discussed about transverse and longitudinal waves.
We continued to discuss the theme of waves in the following
session. Students deposited small polystyrene balls over a
speaker (Fig. 9) and changed the frequency of the signal sent to
it (code in Fig. 10). They could observe different patterns
regarding the movement of the balls.
In the last session, we discussed about energy sources and
energy efficiency. We distributed a solar panel, an LED
module and two DC motors for each group. They could expose
the panel to sun to check if the LED and motors turned on. We
asked them to change the angle of the panel in relation to the
sun. Since the two motors were different (12 V and 5 V), they
were able to notice in speed. They could also compare other
sources of light like incandescent and fluorescent lamps
(Fig. 11).
 The section about the experiments had open and closed
questions. We asked two open questions: what students
enjoyed most and least. Almost all of them answered the best
part was “the experiments”, “the practice”, “the Arduino”, or
“to try different things”. Some of them wrote about a specific
experiment like “the solar panel” or “the experiments with
waves”. The least appreciated aspect pointed out by students
was “the reports”. Some of them also complained about “not
enough time” or “some colleagues not collaborating”. For the
closed question “Did I like to make the experiments?”, 6
marked “no” (3%). When asked if they “would recommend the
experiments for another group of students in the following
year”, 14 marked “no” (7.2%).
Fig. 11. Experiment 11 regarding solar panels. Two categorized questions were included regarding the
perceived interest and easiness of the experiments. The greater
III. EVALUATION majority (94.8%) found experiments “interesting” or “very
After the 11 sessions, students answered a post-course interesting”, as shown in Fig. 14.
survey using an electronic form. It included 5 sections:
• personal details (age, and sex – names were not
collected)
• smartphone ownership
• the experimental sessions
• Physics course
• future career
We collected a total of 195 answers from the 6 classes that
took part in the project. Regarding sex, we had 131 girls (67%)
and 64 boys. Age distribution is shown in Fig. 12.
Fig. 14. Categorized opinion about the experiments.
Answering how easy they found the experiments, the
majority answered “easy”, as Fig. 15 shows.

Fig. 12. Age distribution of students.

We included a section about smartphone ownership

because we were interested to know if these devices could be
used in future sessions. Only 20 reported that do not own a
smartphone. The other 175 students reported the operational
systems as in Fig. 13.
Fig. 15. Categorized opinion about the easiness of the activities.
After that, the survey focused on questions regarding
Physics, since we would like to know their perception about
the subject. It seems that students have a positive opinion about
it: 73.8% answered Physics as “interesting” or “very
interesting” (Fig. 16). However, when asked about how easy or
difficult they consider Physics, 83.6% think it is “difficult” or
“very difficult” (Fig. 17).

Fig. 13. Operational systems of smartphones students own.


Fig. 16. Categorized opinion about Physics.
Fig. 17. Categorized opinion about how easy Physics is.
We tried to verify the relationship between the sessions and
the subject, including two yes/no questions. When asked about
“the experimental sessions helped me to understand Physics”,
33 answered “no” (16.9%). Answering to “the experimental
sessions helped me to appreciate Physics”, 82 marked “no”
(42%).
In the section about their future career, we asked if they
were planning to apply for higher degree studies. Sixteen
students answered “no” (8.2%). Those who answered “yes”
should point out the area of future studies. Answers (in
Portuguese) are summarized in the tag cloud in Fig. 16. The
most common (24) answer was “I don't know”, followed by
“law” and “engineering”, both with 19. “Medicine” with 16
and “physical education”, with 13, were also common. Since
this was an open question, students could answer with more
than one option. We corrected typos to obtain a tag cloud better
categorized.
Fig. 18. Tag cloud grouping answers with regard to future
higher degree careers.
IV. DISCUSSION
From students' answers, we argue that this project opened
new horizons for students. However, it has not changed their
perception about Physics, that continues to be seen as a
difficult subject. In the Brazilian curriculum, Physics is a very
demanding subject, covering a long list of content from
Mechanics to Relativity. In Brazil, high school students cannot
choose between a basic track or advanced Physics, as in other
countries. In addition, unfortunately, it is usually approached
with theoretical classes only. Public school teachers work for
long hours and have only a small fraction of their time
available to prepare classes. Spontaneous answers from
students show that the long-established teaching based on
theory in the black board has little appeal for them. New
approaches like using Arduino to conduct experiments should
be tried in a way that Physics is perceived as directly related to
technological advances. Moreover, giving an opportunity for
practical work with Arduino can contribute to improve success
rates in Brazilian schools.
One can notice also that students are not sure about their
future career. Less that one year before their choice in
“vestibular”, the entrance examination for universities in
Brazil, many of them do not know what area to follow. More
student counseling is necessary to help them in this important
decision.
V. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
This work presented a set of low-cost experiments using
Arduino for Physics classes. The topics covered the content for
the 2nd year of high school in Brazil (thermodynamics, optics,
and waves). Arduino was part of the control and acquisition
system, using, e.g., temperature sensors and buzzers.
After the 11 sessions, we collected students' opinion using
an electronic form. Answers show that students became
motivated with the experiments, and want to take part in more
practical work regarding Physics and Arduino.
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