Lia Laela Sarah, Greg Shaw, Andi Suhandi, Ida Kaniawati, Mubiar Agustin
In science education, educators frequently encounter the challenges of inadequate resources, equipment, and pedagogical strategies when planning and executing science projects in classrooms. To address this pervasive issue, forty-one science teachers participated in a training workshop to acquire expertise using Arduino microcontrollers and sensors as instrumental tools for scientific educational experiments. Of the participants, 18 engaged in face-to-face instruction, while others embraced online learning through synchronous platforms, such as Zoom, and asynchronous media, such as Google Classroom. The training consisted of three sections, including science pedagogy and the Arduino context for each session. To evaluate the training results, science teacher participants had to complete the assignment in the pedagogical context and the Arduino science project. Our findings illuminate a disparity in completion rates between online and face-to-face modes of instruction, with 41% of teachers succeeding in the former and a notably higher 79% in the online form. This study underscores the nuanced challenges encountered when incorporating teaching tools into science education activities, irrespective of the instructional mode. The challenges that participants faced included effective translation of wiring diagrams to physical circuits, resolution of coding errors, mitigation of connectivity issues between the Arduino equipment and computers, and challenges in structuring instructional steps that are essential for the successful implementation of Arduino-based science teaching. Nevertheless, 85% of educators expressed a shared perspective on the viability of Arduino tools as instruments for enriching the landscape of science education. © 2025 International Council of Associations for Science Education. All rights reserved. As SEI is an open access journal all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. The SEI operates under the creative commons license CC BY-NC, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Department of Science Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia; College of Education, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina NT, Australia; Department of Early Childhood Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
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