The Development and Perception of Trainee Teachers towards Smartphone Based Free Fall Measurement Kit Using Arduino

Abstract

Free fall motion is one of the topics that is always considered challenging for Physics Students. The lack of teaching aids concerning this topic is also why students are less exposed to the free fall concept. Thus, this study aims to develop a Free Fall Kit as a teaching aid for the Physics Form Four under the subtopic Free Fall Movement. This kit is developed using an Arduino microcontroller where the result of gravitational acceleration will be displayed on the smartphone through the Bluetooth module. This study also aims to test the trainee teacher’s perceptions of majoring in physics at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris towards the Free Fall Kit. The validity study was conducted with three experts among the physics lecturers at the Sultan Idris University of Education. These validity data were analyzed using the Percentage of Consent. The validity value obtained showed a high value where the total percentage of validity agreement from the three experts was 98.3% for face validity and 93.3% for content validity. This study uses a descriptive method to assess the instrument reliability and respondents perceptions of the developed kits. The data obtained showed that Cronbach’s Alpha value is 0.97, while an average mean score is 3.82 and an average standard deviation value is 0.28, indicating that the level of reliability and perception is at a high level of agreement among the respondents. In conclusion, the Free Fall Kit has a good perception among trainee teachers at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris and has achieved the objectives of this research. The implication is that the Free Fall Kit can be an alternative teaching aid for teachers to teach the subtopic of free fall motion to determine the value of gravitational acceleration.