A Non-classical Acoustics Teaching Lab Supported by BYOD and Inquiry-Based Learning

Abstract

Mobile technologies are disclosing promising didactic opportunities by broadening learners’ engagement into hands-on laboratory activities for scientific disciplines, so that the traditional experiential scenario can be detached from school labs to be merged seamlessly into students’ daily life. Mobiles can be the key driver for activating Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) strategies, which are very effective in experimental didactics. Similarly, mobiles foster the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach, which is based on the use of personal electronic devices during educational activities at school. In this paper, we present an IBL- and BYOD-based Laboratorial Didactic Experience (LDE) on sound and acoustics topics for students from middle and high schools. These topics are cross-disciplinary and also entails the noise pollution, which is so concerning today. The LDE has involved 20 classes from 7 schools in Brindisi (Italy) for a 3-month period. The inquiry phase of the LDE is activated via the Prevision Experiment Comparison (PEC) cycle, thanks to specific learning and pedagogical objectives and methods, whilst the learning contexts on sound are sources, propagation, detectors, pressure, waves. The LDE is supported by a set of proposed mobile apps dealing with three knowledge areas: acoustic monitoring (thanks to an ad-hoc developed mobile app), sound generation, analysis of mobiles’ sensors. In our validation strategy, classes are pairwise compared: the first class follows the mobile-mediated approach, whilst the second a traditional teaching approach, in order to compare their learning outcomes by issuing proper input and output tests.