Designing and Evaluating Relativity Lab: A Simulation Environment for Special Relativity Education at the Secondary Level

This article describes the design and evaluation of a simulation environment for special relativity (SR) education at the secondary level. In recent years, SR has become increasingly popular in secondary school curricula worldwide. Because the key concepts in SR are very remote from everyday experience, they are difficult for students to learn. Computer simulations provide a promising approach to explore these abstract concepts in a simplified and idealized virtual environment. The currently available simulation tools for SR, however, are limited in terms of usability and flexibility. We report on the development of an online simulation environment, named Relativity Lab. In Relativity Lab, students can construct simulations themselves and freely select the inertial frame of reference from which the simulation is rendered. We performed a small-scale evaluation (N = 16) in which Relativity Lab was used in inquiry-learning activities. Results indicate that students found Relativity Lab a helpful tool for visualizing relative motion and relativistic light propagation. Moreover, the inquiry-learning activities helped students to recognize discrepancies between their prediction and the outcome of a simulation. We propose improvements to the current task design by providing stricter instructions with regard to constructing the simulation and switching between inertial frames.