O uso do simulador PhET nas aulas de física em turmas do ensino médio para a compreensão das leis de Newton: uma abordagem interativa

Abstract

This work aims to explore the application of Newton's Laws in physics teaching using the PhET simulator as a pedagogical tool, in addition to investigating how the interactive simulation can facilitate the understanding of concepts related to the three Newton laws, in which are fundamental in the mechanic studies. The research had qualitative and quantitative aspects, in wich was possible to obtain a positive mensure related to the use of virtual laboratories. Initially, we applied an exam to evaluet the previous knowledge of the students about the topics that will be addressed. Follows, we explain the three Newton's laws by using the simulator. Finally, we reapplied the first exam, with the goal of evaluating the students' progress with the used methodology. The results indicate that students that used the PhET gained a deeper understanding of the concepts of inertia, action and reaction, and the proportionality between force, mass and accelerating, beacause by viasualization of the phenomenos throug the simulator it is possible to obtain a significative learning. Besides, the simulation allowed that students to explore situations that would be difficult to physically play out in a school laboratory. Based on the analysis of data generated through exams, it was reported that the use of PhET in teaching Newton's Laws not only improves understanding of the concepts, but also increases students' interest in the subject, and furthermore, the simulator proves to be a valuable tool for teaching physics, capable of complementing and improving the traditional teaching approaches.