Smart-Classroom Action Research: PhET Simulations and DIKSHA e-Content for Distance-Time Graphs in Class 9 Science

Graphs That Move is a six-week action-research project carried out during the B.Ed school internship at a government senior secondary school. Many government schools have received interactive panels and desktops under the ICT component of Samagra Shiksha, and the school's UDISE+ profile confirms functional computers, a smart classroom and internet — yet in practice the panel is used mostly as a slide projector, or not switched on at all. This project asks whether planned, simulation-led use of the hardware the school already owns can measurably improve how Class 9 students read and plot motion graphs, one of the most consistently poorly answered parts of the NCERT Class 9 Science chapter Motion.

The intervention combines two freely available resources: PhET's 'The Moving Man' simulation from the University of Colorado Boulder, which draws position and velocity graphs live as a figure moves, and DIKSHA e-content — NCERT-aligned videos reachable through the textbook's QR codes — played on the smart panel. Two action-research cycles (plan, act, observe, reflect) are run with one Class 9 section. Achievement is measured with a blueprint-based, teacher-made graph-interpretation test administered before and after the cycles; engagement is tracked with a time-sampled observation schedule and a reflective journal. Scores are analysed in Excel using averages and normalised gain, and the report ends with practical guidelines the school's own teachers can follow to keep the smart classroom in daily use after the internship ends.

Government schools have been equipped with smart classrooms, but equipment is not pedagogy. At the internship school, the UDISE+ profile reports functional computers and an ICT-enabled classroom, yet observation over one week found the panel used for a few minutes only, and never for content a blackboard could not deliver. Meanwhile, Class 9 unit-test copies showed that motion-graph questions were answered weakest of all topics: students memorised definitions of speed and velocity but could not read a distance–time graph's slope, could not interpret a horizontal line, and plotted points without connecting them to real motion.

The gap is between infrastructure that exists and teaching that changes. There is a need for a structured classroom intervention that uses the school's own panel with free, NCERT-aligned digital resources — PhET simulations and DIKSHA e-content — inside the regular 40-minute science period, and that measures both achievement (through a skill-wise, blueprint-based pre/post test) and engagement (through structured observation), so that the intern and the school know exactly what worked, for which graph skill, and what routine can continue after the internship ends.

Abstract

This action research examines whether simulation-supported teaching on a government school's under-used smart classroom improves Class 9 students' understanding of distance–time and velocity–time graphs. Over six weeks of the 16-week school internship stretch, two plan–act–observe–reflect cycles were conducted with one Class 9 section using PhET's 'The Moving Man' and DIKSHA video e-content. A teacher-made, blueprint-based graph-interpretation test (20 marks) was administered as pre-test and post-test, and classroom engagement was recorded on an observation schedule.

Introduction

India's schools have hardware they barely use. The UDISE+ data-collection form records functional computers, internet and ICT-enabled classrooms for every school, and many government schools report them — but facility on paper does not mean facility in use. During the first observation week at the internship school, the smart panel was used about ten minutes in a week, never for anything a chart on the board could not do. At the same time, the Class 9 unit test showed that the Motion chapter's graph questions produced the weakest scores: students could recite that slope means speed, but could not read a rising-falling graph or sketch the graph of a stationary object.

Existing System

• The Motion chapter is taught on the blackboard with a single textbook figure; the smart panel shows a static slideshow.
• Graph reading is practised only through end-of-chapter exercises, with no link between motion and its graph.
• Assessment is a single chapter test; there is no diagnostic information about which graph skill fails — reading slope, reading a flat line, or plotting values.
• Limitations: the school's own UDISE+ profile advertises ICT capacity that classroom practice does not use; students see graphs as arithmetic, not as a picture of motion.

Proposed System

• A cycle-based intervention: three lessons per cycle, each beginning with a DIKSHA video clip on the panel and a PhET simulation demonstration in which students predict the graph before it is drawn.
• A blueprint-based graph-interpretation test that samples three skills separately — reading slope, reading stationary/return motion, and plotting a table of values — so the report can say precisely which skill improved.
• An engagement observation schedule (five-minute interval sampling of on-task behaviour) and a reflective journal, so the affective side of the intervention is documented alongside marks.
• A closing staff note: two pages of guidelines (offline downloads, lesson timings, panel routines) so the practice survives after the internship.

Feasibility Study

• Technical: PhET runs in a browser or offline installer; DIKSHA videos can be downloaded once and played without internet. The school's panel and a laptop are sufficient; no new hardware is required.
• Economic: zero cost — both resources are free and NCERT-aligned; printing the test and observation sheets costs under ₹100.
• Operational: the design fits the regular 40-minute periods and the prescribed syllabus order, so the cooperating teacher loses no syllabus time. Permission is sought from the headmaster, and student names are coded so no child is identified in the report.

In scope

• One government senior secondary school; one Class 9 section (about 40 students) taught by the intern during the school internship.
• The Motion chapter's graph content: distance–time graphs, velocity–time graphs, slope meaning, stationary and return motion.
• Two action-research cycles of three lessons each, plus baseline and endline data collection.
• Instruments: UDISE+ based ICT audit sheet, blueprint and test, observation schedule, exit slips, reflective journal, student feedback.
• Analysis in Excel: averages, skill-wise percentages, normalised gain, engagement index, simple charts.

Out of scope

• A control-section comparison (the internship timetable allows only one section; the design is pre/post, not a controlled experiment).
• Topics beyond Motion graphs (laws of motion and numerical problems on acceleration are taught conventionally).
• School-wide teacher training or policy recommendations beyond the two-page staff note.
• Providing or repairing hardware — the study uses what the school already has.

The study follows the action research spiral of Kemmis and McTaggart — planning, action, observation and reflection, repeated — because the question is not "does ICT work in general" but "what routine works in this classroom", which only cycles can answer.

Analysis plan: mean and median pre/post scores; percentage correct per skill item (slope, stationary, plotting); Hake's normalised gain per skill; engagement index (percentage of on-task students at each five-minute sample, averaged). Ethics: headmaster's written permission, cooperating teacher informed, students identified only by codes, no photographs of faces in the report.

The study design is a two-cycle improvement loop wrapped around a baseline–endline measurement. The core loop is the action-research spiral; inside each lesson runs a fixed predict–simulate–plot–discuss routine. Both are drawn below as the study's working architecture.

flowchart TD
  A["Baseline: audit ICT via UDISE+ indicators, log panel usage"] --> B["Pre-test: blueprint-based 20-mark graph test"]
  B --> C["Cycle 1: three lessons with DIKSHA clip and PhET 'The Moving Man'"]
  C --> D["Observe: engagement schedule, field notes, exit slips"]
  D --> E{"Targets met?"}
  E -- "No — revise lesson design" --> F["Cycle 2: student-driven simulation and plotting"]
  F --> G["Observe again and log change"]
  E -- "Yes" --> H["Post-test (parallel form) and feedback slips"]
  G --> H
  H --> I["Excel analysis: skill-wise items, normalised gain, engagement index"]
  I --> J["Reflect, write report, share staff guideline"]

Within each 40-minute period the same routine runs, so the intervention is a repeatable practice rather than a one-off demonstration:

flowchart LR
  L1["Warm-up: DIKSHA video clip on the panel"] --> L2["Predict: students sketch the graph first"]
  L2 --> L3["Simulate: run 'The Moving Man', collect values"]
  L3 --> L4["Plot: graph paper plotting from the table"]
  L4 --> L5["Discuss: match graphs, expose misconceptions"]
  L5 --> L6["Exit slip: one graph question, collected at the door"]

The flow is deliberately low-tech in its fallbacks: if power or internet fails, the downloaded DIKSHA video plays from the laptop, and if even that fails, the lesson degrades to a ruler-and-slate demonstration of the same predict–plot–discuss routine, so no period is wasted.

• Third cycle across sections: if the timetable permits, extend to a second section with a delayed-treatment design to strengthen the evidence.
• Other graph-heavy topics: apply the same routine to current–voltage characteristics, population graphs or weather data.
• Offline-first content kit: curate a pen-drive library of downloaded PhET simulations and DIKSHA videos mapped to the semester's syllabus so teachers never depend on connectivity.
• Teacher handover: a short in-house orientation — two demonstration periods where the regular teacher co-teaches with the panel.
• Longer engagement study: replace interval sampling with a simple time-on-task app and compare across subjects.
• Write it up: convert the report into a short article for a teacher-education journal or a DIKSHA practice-sharing entry.