Cynthia Jebuni-Adanu

Background Over the years, the number of prospective students intending to study physics at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has gradually declined. This has drastically affected the number of trained physics teachers in the country. As a matter of urgency, there is therefore the need to look at the factors that influence the choice of physics at the undergraduate level in UEW in order to encourage more students to enrol in the course.Purpose This study sought to find out the factors motivating the students at UEW, to major in physics, despite the general belief that the course is very difficult.Sample The participants of this study were physics students at the Department of Physics Education, UEW, Ghana. Purposive sampling was used to select 101 respondents.Design and Methods Questionnaire was used in gathering data. Interview and focused group discussion were used to validate the responses of the participants to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was analyzed using R version 4.22. Additionally, Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to rank the Likert form items.Results The findings indicated that students ranked interest (RII = 0.92) as their major motivating factor to read physics in the Department. Students also claimed that their parents had little influence on their decision to study physics. Whiles professional teachers used it as a conduit to secure study leave with pay from GES. Students who had difficulty in the subject also attributed it to their long delay at home after completing senior high school before gaining admission to the University.Conclusions The study recommends that there should be a concerted effort to arouse the interest of physics learners at the lower levels of education in Ghana by the Department of Physics Education, Winneba and other stakeholders in order to increase the enrolment of students in physics.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of using Physics Education Technology (PhET) interactive simulations in improving students' understanding of energy conversion and conservation at Tuobodom Senior High and Technical School, with a focus on comparing female and male students. A total of 45 students (male = 29, female = 16) were selected using purposive sampling and taught using both traditional methods and PhET simulations, with their understanding evaluated through pre and post-intervention tests. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-tests. There was a significant pre-intervention score difference between males (15.88) and females (8.25) with a p-value of 0.00, however post-intervention scores were similar for both groups (males 10.88, females 12.62). The study found that PhET simulations effectively promote gender equity by narrowing the performance gap which is likely to improve student’s interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The findings of the study shows that PhET interactive simulation improves students' conceptual understanding of energy conversion and conservation. Keywords: Physics Education Technology (PhET), Conceptual, Energy conversion, energy conservation and Interactive visualization, Science Technology engineering and mathematics (STEM). DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-8-06 Publication date: March 31 st 2023