Experimental physics through the Internet

The title of this work conveys a sort of contradiction: Experiments in Physics must require real instruments, devices and materials, and experimental settings must concern observations and measurements that occur in nature. However, in this work we deal with the question of teaching high school physics by using an online course that contains experimental activities. Such a course is available on the Internet and has been designed by following guiding principles that take into account recommendations coming from researches on Science Education. The online course contains the following features: (1) detailed instructions for building simple and inexpensive apparatuses for home made qualitative demonstrations, (2) deep analysis of videos showing low cost experiments where precise measurements can be made and, (3) guidelines for representing and interpreting results obtained by the students. The course also have other components such as: the syllabus indicating the content to be learnt; the calendar of activities describing what, when and by whom; instructions concerning how to study and collaborate among students; notes prepared by the teacher and links for useful documents as well as references accessible in the Internet; remarks on history and epistemology; use of spreadsheets, graphs and tables; a selection of available computer-based simulations and videos; questions and discussions of answers in a student electronic forum; and a collection of assessment instruments such as questionnaires, exercises, home work problems, and tests. We report on the consequences of teaching mechanics and electromagnetism by using this online course and comment on the reactions of the students, their learning problems and their achievements