The present paper describes the design of teaching materials that are used as learning tools in school visits to a science museum. An exhibition on ‘A century of the Special Theory of Relativity’, in the Kutxaespacio Science Museum, in San Sebastian, Spain, was used to design a visit for first‐year engineering students at the university and assess the learning that was achieved. The first part of the paper presents the teaching sequence that was designed to build a bridge between formal teaching and the exhibition visit. The second part analyses the potential of the exhibition and the aforementioned teaching sequence to influence the students’ knowledge of three aspects of the Special Theory of Relativity. The results obtained show that the design of the visit, with both pre‐visit and follow‐up activities, was effective as a means of increasing students’ understanding and stimulating their ability to argue scientifically.

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Students’ Understanding of the Special Theory of Relativity and Design for a Guided Visit to a Science Museum

The teaching proposal based on conceptual change is, no doubt, the most spreaded one in Science Education; however, there is evidence from the teaching practice, as well as some theoretical considerations about students’cognitive conflicts, which, in the best case, limit the range of application of this proposal.

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Delimitando el campo de aplicación del cambio conceptual

Summary. Relativity is a very important part of modern physics. In this paper we analyze the teaching and learning of the theory of relativity at secondary school level and we show the pupils’ main difficulties. This article presents some reasoned arguments against traditional methods to teach relativity. Finally, a new approach to relativity teaching is showed.

Algunos problemas en la enseñanza de la relatividad

El problema que nos planteamos en este trabajo surge de tres diferentes preocupaciones: la importancia del ?aprendizaje no formal? de la ciencia como parte del curriculo escolar, la necesidad de alfabetizacion cientifica y la importancia de las implicaciones sociales de la ciencia contemporanea. Se ha aprovechado una exposicion
en el Kutxaespacio de la Ciencia de San Sebastian sobre el centenario de la Teoria Especial de la Relatividad para disenar una visita de estudiantes de primer curso de Ingenieria y evaluar el aprendizaje logrado. En la primera parte del trabajo se expone el diseno realizado para establecer puentes entre la docencia formal y la visita a la
exposicion. En la segunda parte se analiza el potencial de la exposicion y del diseno realizado para influir en el conocimiento de los estudiantes en tres aspectos de la Teoria Especial de la Relatividad. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el diseno de visita con actividades previas y posteriores a la misma resulta eficaz para aumentar la
comprension de los estudiantes y estimular su capacidad de argumentar cientificamente.

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Comprensión de los estudiantes de la Teoría Especial de la Relatividad y diseño de una visita guiada a un museo de la ciencia

espanolEn este articulo se analizan las dificultades de aprendizaje de la Teoria de la Relatividad Restringida de Einstein. La informacion se ha obtenido y seleccionado de las bases de datos Web of Science, Scopus, Educational Resources Information Center y Google Scholar, teniendo en cuenta los indices de valoracion Journal Citation Reports (JCR), Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) e Indice Compuesto de Difusion Secundaria (ICDS). Para el analisis y las conclusiones se establecieron las dificultades de aprendizaje del alumnado relacionadas con la Relatividad Restringida de Einstein, respecto a los siguientes conceptos: Espacio y tiempo. Causalidad y simultaneidad. Sistemas de referencia. Energia. Masa. Luz. El presente estudio ha constituido el fundamento del diseno de una propuesta de ensenanza basada en la formulacion geometrica de Minkowski, dirigida a estudiantes de bachillerato EnglishIn this article we analyze the learning difficulties of Einstein's Theory of Restricted Relativity. The information has been obtained and selected from the Web of Science, Scopus, Educational Resources Information Center and Google Scholar databases, taking into account the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) and Composite Index of Secondary Dissemination (ICDS). For the analysis and the conclusions the learning difficulties of the students related to the Restricted Relativity of Einstein were established, with respect to the following concepts: Space and time. Causality and simultaneity. Reference frames. Energy. Mass. Light. This study has been the basis for the design of a teaching proposal based on the geometric formulation of Minkowski, aimed at high school students

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Aprendizaje de la Teoría de la Relatividad Restringida de Einstein. Estado de la Cuestión

Interviews about special relativity are realized with students of a Modem Physics course. The results of the interviews’ analysis suggest that conceptual change doesn’t mean a substitution of classic physics conceptions by the relativistic ones but that there is an interactive coexistence of both.

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G. Santos

Papers

Análisis de la transición de la física clásica a la relativista desde la perspectiva del "cambio conceptual"