Support System for Discovering Laws of Motion in Learning Physics

The growing disinterest in science among young people has become a serious problem. Students do not relate the theories and formulas learned in physics with real-world phenomena. The objective of this research is to propose introduction learning methods for students to discover laws of motion from the phenomena around them. In this learning method, real-world objects and motions are analyzed and common characteristics for these motions are extracted to form a law. Any contradiction in the created law is then investigated with other phenomena. We developed a system to achieve this learning method. In the system, learners use cameras to take photographs of physical phenomena, which encourages awareness of the physical phenomena around them. As the outcome of the analysis, the learners attach annotations to the photos that represent the motions and properties of the moving objects and surrounding objects. They then create a group of photos based on the same motion and develop a hypothesis of the law by selecting common annotations from the group. If the created hypothesis has a contradiction, the system sends a message to encourage the learners to rethink their hypothesis.