Scientific teaching with tablet PCs: Incorporating Tablet PCs into scientific workflows at schools

The interactive demonstration "Scientific Teaching with Tablet PCs" deals with the capabilities of tablets for measurements of physical values and video analysis of motions. The author designed learning scenarios for science teaching in secondary education using sensors and mobile devices in order to enhance the motivation of pupils to deal with scientific issues. These learning scenarios were implemented and evaluated at the BG/BRG Schwechat, a public school in Austria using the concept of shared iPads with 30 iPads. The learning scenarios are available at the community "iPads@BG/BRG Schwechat" launched at the Open Discovery Space Portal. Open Discovery Space is funded by the European Commission, the aim is to provide a socially-powered, multilingual, open learning infrastructure to boost the adaptation of e-learning resources in Europe. The teaching methodology of the e-learning sequences in physics with the use of sensors meets the requests of the competency model for physics and follows the concept of "inquiry basesd learning". Measurements are carried out with the app "SparkVue" which enables real-time data collection with a mobile device. Data are displayed in real-time in a graph, bar graph, analog meter, digits or table. An analysis of data can be done with built-in statistical tools, furthermore data can be exported in order to analyze with spreadsheet like Excel or Numbers. As cooperative workflow the app allows to live data sharing across devices in the same network. Video analysis of moving objects is carried out by the app "Video Physics". The use of modern tablets and smartphones as measuring devices brings significant benefits for achieving learning goals and supports pupils in understanding complicated scientific concepts.