E-learning materials to study properties of liquid crystals at university level and in schools

Abstract

Physicists research numerous interesting physics problems, among them the behaviour of liquid crystals. These problems can be very useful for illustrating general principles of physics, and so we worked to include them in our natural science program. In the frame of a project entitled "Introduction of current research interdisciplinary topic into education -liquid crystals" we prepared static and dynamic components for e-learning materials to highlight some of the key properties of typical liquid crystalline phases and some structures that appear in different geometrical boundaries or in bulk systems. The materials produced, and an analysis of the appropriateness of different types of e-learning materials for different levels of education (including primary education, secondary education, and physics courses for educational and engineering studies) are described in this article.