Summary
The Eye Tribe eye-tracker was used to capture pupil sizes and fixation times of 40 people aged 8 to 79 years during text reading. The dependence of the number of readable lines on the participants’ age was determined. A function describing the dependence of the eye surface area on age was also derived. Visual perception of the maximum number of consecutive lines with decreasing text font size is best for people aged 30–40. For the studied age group, the pupil area decreased with age by approximately 300%. An approximately two-fold increase in average fixation times was recorded.
For the purpose of this work, 16-year-old students gave their opinions on the usefulness of physics formulas from the school curriculum. The average students regarded below 30% of the presented formulas as useful, whereas for winners of a physics competition it was over 60%. Using the SMI Hi-Speed1250 eyetracker, a relationship between 52 students' eye fixation times on 16 presented formulas and their opinion on the formulas' usefulness was designated. For the best students, the Pearson correlation coefficient was close to zero. For average students, it was 0.6. Key words: physics formulas, public schools, school curriculum.
This work presents the results of research on over 5,000 students aged 14–15 that focuses on their attitudes towards school subjects with special regard to physics. It describes the mathematical relationships between an interest in physics and students’ school grades, their plans to choose a profession in which knowledge in physics is needed, an opinion on the usefulness of physics for society and an assessment of the usefulness of the most important formulas from the school curriculum. The average declared interest in school physics, the assessment of its social usefulness and the willingness to choose a profession relating to physics were relatively low. Of the 16 most important formulas taught in physics during the last three years of learning, only 3 formulas were considered useful by the students. The work also presents the ranking of the persons in the history of physics with the greatest impact on the fate of humanity, according to students.
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