Old instruments in the physics and chemistry cabinet at Goya Secondary School. Analysis of their didactic use in teaching physics today ( Los antiguos instrumentos del gabinete de física y química del IES Goya. Análisis de su uso didáctico en la actual enseñanza de la física )

Abstract

This article presents a study on the instruments in the old physics and chemistry cabinet at Goya Secondary School in Zaragoza (Spain). The first goal was to analyse the evolution in the acquisition time of these instruments classified by disciplines and to study these instruments’ historical didactic functions. The second goal was to promote the process of recovering several instruments to learn about their didactic value today based on analysing how this process intervenes in students’ learning physics. The majority of the instruments were used in the past to demonstrate laws related to fluids, forces, light, sound, electricity and magnetism. Some of these instruments were revived via a project in which current secondary students work experimentally and autonomously. The results show that through this project, these students gained complex knowledge about the disciplines they worked on and even formulated hypotheses.