Learning physics down a slide: A set of experiments to measure reality through smartphone sensors

Abstract

During the last decade, the use of smartphones among teenagers in their daily life has grown significantly. Despite the efforts to use tablets in learning processes, these teenagers are often prompted to switch off their personal devices before entering a classroom. Moreover, most mobile learning applications do not take advantage of the device sensors (e.g., touchscreen, accelerometer, or gyroscope). In order to overcome this situation, we have developed Serious Physics, a free mobile app that allows using smartphones as measuring tools to conduct experiments on Physics.