Report On Teaching Science Using Virtual Experiments

Report on Teaching Science using virtual Experiments

We carried out the activity individually as we encountered some problems at the very last minutes. We are to choose anyone from the upper primary level. As for me, I picked two Year 6 pupils; a boy and a girl. Both of them are from different schools but they have learnt Friction before. The boy is from SR Kiudang, Tutong 1 and the girl is from SR PKN Bukit Beruang, Tutong II. The activity was carried out on 16th, October. 2009. Before I started the activity, I asked both of them about Friction. The boy had no idea about it but the girl seems to remember something about it. She told me that she remembered that Friction is something that made us not falling down when walking. I agreed with her because friction is something that resists the motion of the object that is in contact with another object. Next, I asked both of them to rub their hands together and explained what happened. Both of them told me that they felt hot. I explained to them that this is Friction. I also explained further about Friction and what does it do. Then, I showed both of them the website on virtual experiment of Friction (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/physical_processes/frict ion/play.shtml). I explained the instruction of the activity to both of them. Before they carried out the activity, I asked them to predict what happened to the car? and Which materials will make the car pass the blue flag? As the result, the boy gave correct answer compared to the girl. For the worksheet given, part A, both pupils answer the question differently. The girl chose tile as being the fastest followed by carpet, grass, sand and stone being the slowest. As for the boy, he chose carpet as the fastest followed by tile, sand, grass and the slowest, stone. For part B, both of them gave the same answers; first picture ‘fast’ and second picture ‘slow’.

Overall, both pupils are doing quite well in solving the tasks given and enjoyed learning by using the virtual experiments. In my opinion, virtual experiments can be use to motivate pupils in learning and encourage them to use their imagination in order to predict the outcome.