Hands-on Experiment Supported by Augmented Reality Smartglasses for Learning the Lorentz Force

TL;DR

This paper introduces an augmented reality smartglasses-based learning environment for exploring the Lorentz force, aiming to enhance understanding and representational skills through immersive, interactive visualization of physical fields.

Contribution

It presents a novel AR setup for physics education that visualizes electromagnetic fields, supporting inquiry-based learning and assessing usability with secondary students.

Findings

High usability score of 80.18 indicates effective AR system

AR visualization facilitates direct investigation of physical phenomena

Supports development of representational skills in physics learners

Abstract

Previous research has shown that inquiry-based learning through hands-on experiments, as well as learning with multiple, external representations (MERs) can promote the understanding of complex phenomena in physics. In this context, augmented reality (AR) smartglasses make it possible to superimpose real experiments with virtually presented information while maintaining learners' freedom to interact with the experimental setup. This allows spatial and temporal contiguity to be established between the phenomenon and the supporting virtual visualizations which can help to reduce learners' cognitive load and to free up cognitive resources for learning. We introduce an AR learning environment for the investigation of the Lorentz force. By visualizing the fields relevant to the experiment in AR, a more direct investigation of the physical phenomenon can be achieved for the learner. Additionally, this setup can foster the acquisition of representational skills by providing the possibility to superimpose fields using various representations. This learning setting will be used in future studies to investigate how MERs should be combined in a guided inquiry-based learning environment to best promote learners' conceptual knowledge and representational skills. We present the system and report usability data that were collected from a sample of 188 secondary school students. The average score was 80.18 (SD: 12.06) which signals an excellent usability of the AR learning environment.