The use of calculating packages for electrical circuit problem solving by Secondary education students: A comparative educational evaluation

The present research study aims at detecting and recording Upper Secondary School students´ criteria regarding the suitability of various calculating packages - including one specially designed and developed by the researchers- to assist teaching and problem solving electrical circuits. For the above purposes 69 Upper Secondary School students aged from 16 to 17 (male and female), after having undergone some introductory tuition on their operation, used four different calculating packages to deal with various problems concerning electric circuits. These packages were evaluated and compared: (a) a properly customised spread-sheet calculating package, (b) the Mathematica-Solve function, (c) the Mathematica LinearSolve function, (d) a Java-8 application specially designed and developed for this study. Students recorded their views on a questionnaire, the analysis of which revealed the most appropriate calculating package for the purpose. The reasons for students´ choices are recorded and analysed, drawing important educational conclusions for both future software design, and customisation of packages intended for educational use. The process of rational choice between all sorts of adaptable software for specific educational use, is also discussed. The concept of students acquiring basic algorithmic skills in the process of computing physics experiments is also addressed herein.