How can GeoGebra support physics education in upper-secondary school—a review

Abstract

Recently, GeoGebra, a mathematics education software, has entered the scene of physics education; however, research on how the software can be used to support teaching and learning physics is limited and scattered. The aim of this article is to present a review of the current literature on how GeoGebra can be used to support physics education in upper-secondary schools. The general conclusion that comes from these studies is that GeoGebra is a user-friendly software that can be operated intuitively by teachers and students. It provides an environment in which the underlying mathematical structures are always at hand, enabling users to see connections between physical phenomena and their formal representations. In addition, teachers with or without programming skills can use the software to design custom-made computer simulations and augment real experiments with virtual objects. Our intention is to help teachers who would like to start using GeoGebra or to broaden the use of the software in physics education.

Physics Teachers' Opinions on Algodoo Training

“…In contrast, some (f:14, 64%) used mobile and computersupported interactive applications such as PhET, Stellarium, Algebra, Tinkercad, and Physician. It is understood from the relevant literature that effective physics teaching is made by making use of various interactive applications (Jimoyiannis Komis, 2001;Karamustafaoğlu, 2012;Solvang & Haglund, 2021;Walsh, 2017). In addition, Özdemir & Çoramik (2021), in their research on optics, state that other applications such as Algodoo and PhET for physics lessons can be more effective by using them together.…”

“…Half of the physics teachers with more than twenty years of professional experience (f:6, 50%) and the majority of the teachers with less than twenty years of professional experience (f:8, 80%) stated that they used Algodoo or similar simulation programs in their lessons. In the literature, it is reported that teachers use simulation programs in the first years of their profession (Solvang & Haglund, 2021). It was found that almost all of the teachers working at the Science and Art Center (f:11, 91%) used simulation programs in their lessons or in preparing projects.…”

Geogebra supporting materials for introductory physics university courses

“…A meaningful advantage of the application is a broad international community building a rich reservoir of shared materials (e.g. [15,17,20,22,23]). It provides various tools like numerical solving of algebraic equations and Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE's) or simple animations.…”

GeoGebra and its applications - especially for teaching of geometrical optics

“…Paradoxically, this poor knowledge and skills place higher demands on the quality of the study materials prepared. The aim of this paper is to create a dynamic interactive construction of a thin converging and diverging lens in GeoGebra and to show the possibilities of using this software in teaching geometrical optics at secondary school (for review see [2]). Similar issues have been addressed in studies [3][4][5].…”