2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on student’s motivation to learn. As a result, the in-person laboratory session evolved into a virtual laboratory session. Despite this effort, many students struggled with the Homefront effects, such as communication gaps, digital literacy issues, unfavorable home environments, parental participation, etc. This led to adopting an enhanced motivation strategy to lessen the consequences of the pandemic on students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of study. As such, several studies used software tools like machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), technology-enabled active learning (TEAL), and lots more to improve students’ motivation. These approaches deter students from acquiring practical skills, which lowers their technical proficiency—a vital skill for STEM students. However, only a few studies have used interactive, hands-on tools to improve student learning in practical Physics labs. Also, the difficulty of undergraduate students to make connections between their theory teachings and their practical exercises, as well as how pertinent these lab sessions are to their everyday lives, has led to the conclusion that physics experiments are highly abstract. This study used low-cost, interactive, code-free, miniature technology to improve students’ practical experiences and report how these experiments are applied in everyday activities. The study involved 50 STEM students registered for the Introduction to Physics laboratory course. According to the students’ feedback and the motivated strategy for learning questionnaires adopted, they were very motivated and had less anxiety with enhanced critical thinking.