LAPEN Symposium: Active Learning of Physics in Latin America

Abstract

This symposium proposed by the Latin American Physics Education Network (LAPEN) is devoted to show some results on Physics Education research for high school and university level carried out in the Latin-American region. We focus in the Active Learning of Physics methodologies. There are three contributions from Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico: The topics studied are: (1) The teaching of Special Relativity Theory with Peer Instruction, developed in the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (2) Active Learning of Electromagnetism for engineering students, developed in the University Antonio Nariño in Bogota, Colombia. (3) Rasch Analysis and Active Learning of electrical circuits for high school students, developed at the COBAY school Xoclán Plantel, in Mérida Yucatán in the south of Mexico The Active Learning methodologies are important because there are good results in the literature about their implementation in different educational levels. Besides, it is a way to innovate the physics class, unfortunately in the Latin America region their effectiveness has been little studied. This brief report sheds more light on the matter.