USING ACTIVITY SHEET TO ENHANCE STUDENT RECOGNITION ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF THE OPTICAL PATH DIFFERENCE IN DOUBLE-SLIT INTERFERENCE

Abstract

This research aimed to enhance student recognition about the concept of the optical path difference in double-slit interference. A teaching tool called 'activity sheet' was used to help students visualize light waves and realize the key concept of light interference; that is the optical path difference (OPD). The sinusoidal waves with light rays printed on the transparencies was used to represent light waves in this tool. The activity sheet was applied to the Physics 3 class at Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in the academic year 2022. It was adding during the instruction about the OPD in double-slit interference. The pre-test and post-test were used to assess students’ understanding in this study. The post-test results indicated that more than half of the students gave the correct answer. However, the class average normalized gain in overall was at the low level. It was also found that many students could be used concept of OPD in solving the problem about interference after they had learnt with the activity sheet.