Paper _on_ Simple Physics_IAPT_Final

1 Numericals First A Volunteer, AI-Assisted Multimodal Model for Teaching Class 11 Physics on WhatsApp K M Raghavendran Corresponding email: [email protected] Abstract This paper presents a free, voluntary Class 11 physics programme that I am conducting through a WhatsApp group of more than 160 students and eight to nine Physics teachers. I firmly believe that concepts become clear and students are confident about them only when, they use them in solving numerical problems. The idea is to help them solve numerical problems with a good degree of confidence by strengthening their conceptual understanding through AI-assisted posters, GIFs, animated graphs, home-filmed experiments, voice-over explanations, browser-based HTML lessons, timed quizzes with certificates, higher-order physics challenges, examination-oriented theory PDFs, and cartoon dialogues between Oblelix and Asterix, Young Sheldon and his brother George Jr. The paper describes the content system, prompt-refinement process, HTML-app structure, mixed student–teacher community, limitations, ethical concerns, and future research questions. There is no controlled experiment as yet. I propose a plausible practitioner model for using WhatsApp and generative AI without accepting unchecked AI output. The experiment is evolving day by day with newer methods of communication, instructions and assessment Keywords: Class 11 physics, WhatsApp pedagogy, generative AI in education, numerical problem solving, multimodal learning, HTML learning apps, Physics Education, volunteer teaching. 1. Introduction Class 11 is when physics changes from a collection of definitions into a quantitative language. Students may recite Newton’s second law yet fail to identify the relevant forces or relevant physical quantities in a numerical situation. The difficulty is not simply a lack of material available, but a lack of sufficient emphasis on numericals in which concepts must be identified, applied, rejected, or refined. WhatsApp is already familiar to Indian school students and teachers. This initiative explores whether it can convey more than just announcements or old examination papers through a combination of concept posters, animated graphs, short experiments, screen recordings of worked numericals with voice over, interactive lessons, and timed assessment all free of cost without any complicated login process. To meet this objective, I maintain a free group of about 160+ students and eight to nine Physics teachers. Generative AI supports creation, but the teacher checks every explanation, graph, animation, and numerical for physical accuracy and phonefriendly design. “Theory PDFs” remain available for examinations, while numerical problem solving and challenges are the programme’s backbone. Previous work has examined WhatsApp for extending physics education and discussion (Klieger & Goldsmith, 2020), social-media-supported learning in the Indian higher-secondary context (John & Sreedevi, 2021), and WhatsApp-based AI science assistants (Boateng et al., 2026). Earlier studies also documented the use of class WhatsApp groups for communication, dialogue and resource sharing (Bouhnik & Deshen, 2014). The present effort differs by presenting to the mixed volunteer group, a numericals-first philosophy, and deliberately a combined bag of posters, GIFs, home video, HTML apps, certificates, and cartoons as one educational strategy.2 This model contributes a numerical-first pedagogy in which conceptual understanding is treated as incomplete until students can apply the idea confidently in quantitative problems. It organises learning as a deliberate sequence of representations; Concept posters and GIFs, home experiments and or real-time graphs, short HTML lessons, voice-over worked solutions, timed single-attempt quizzes with certificates, and higher-order challenges, rather than a collection of isolated resources shared on WhatsApp. The same free group deliberately mixes students with practising teachers, so that misconceptions become visible, expert reasoning is modelled, and continuous teacher oversight of AI-generated material is built into the community itself. 2. Pedagogical stance: Teaching Physics through numerical problems. The programme is based on the view that a concept is not fully understood until a student can use it to solve a numerical problem and account for the result. Solving the problem requires qualitative decisions like identifying what remains constant, which energy is lost, which force component does work, or whether a bouncing ball ever stops, followed by calculation. The calculation is complete only when the student can also state the physical meaning of the answer, justify why a particular formula applies under the given conditions, and recognise when those conditions fail, which is the essence of conceptual understanding. Numerical success alone is therefore insufficient. Conceptual understanding is demonstrated by the combination of appropriate calculation, qualitative reasoning, and explicit recognition of the limits of the formula used. It is important to note that this approach does not reject theory. Students need laws, conditions of validity, and derivations for board and competitive examinations, these are supplied in PDFs. I believe while theory is the map, the numerical problems are the territory where it is applied. MCQs, Numericals, and short-answer questions (in the form of model QP if requested) shared are designed so that plausible wrong answers reveal common misconceptions rather than mere play of words. Higher-order challenges add a condition, such as energy loss at impact, a moving wedge, or a nonuniform field that makes the first familiar formula insufficient. The purpose is not to create competitive exam specialists, but to develop the habits of physicists viz identify the situation, choose a principle, calculate, and interpret. 3. The community and the group The single WhatsApp group is deliberately mixed. Students know that practising teachers are viewing the same material, while teachers can observe misconceptions publicly. Membership is free and carries no fee, or promise of rank, this keeps the emphasis on understanding rather than sales. WhatsApp creates practical design constraints and requirements. Posters must be legible on small screens, GIFs must communicate quickly, PDFs must open easily, HTML apps must work in a mobile browser without installation, and audio or video must remain manageable for students with limited data. Sometimes the author uses the local language (kannada) in videos Content is sequenced rather than dumped into the group. A typical concept curve is, a poster(s) or GIF, a home experiment or real-time graph, a short HTML lesson, a worked numerical with voice, a set of MCQs and their detailed solution, timed quiz (with a downloadable certificate as an incentive if the score exceeds a threshold), and eventually a suitable challenge and a set of numericals to try. (The solutions for which will be shared after a suitable time before the next 3 lesson/concept starts). Chapter wise PDFs are also shared as exam preparation material (There is a demand for this) 4. The content system In the following paragraphs I will present the different elements of the multimodal system used. At the end of the article a link is given to view a sample of each mode. The link may be copied and pasted in any Browser like Chrome to view the same 4.1 Concept posters and challenge posters Posters introduce individual ideas such as instantaneous versus average velocity, negative work, or the slope of a v–t graph. Challenge posters present a numerical situation, diagram, and question that cannot be solved by immediate substitution. ChatGPT and Grok assist with drafting and design, but the teacher rejects output that is decorative, overcrowded, physically incorrect, or unsuitable for Class 11 students. Effective posters use a short title, one focal figure or graph, minimal text, and clear givens, the difficulty lies in the physics, not the language. 4.2 GIFs, animations and graphs Animations address persistent difficulties. They may connect motion with its graph, show a graph developing in real time, illustrate the area under a v–t graph as displacement, display changing s– t slope, or show velocity discontinuity during an inelastic impact. They are arguments rather than just ornamentation. Grok, ChatGPT, and a text-to-animation tool such as Pixarverse are used in production. Prompt refinement (The most crucial part for the teacher) specifies axes, units, time, direction, constants, changing quantities, etc. The teacher checks every output, an animation that cannot be defended at the blackboard is not posted. A visually attractive graph with missing axes, false conservation, or a static image pretending to be real time is rejected. 4.3 Home experiments as prompts, not spectacles Short, modest experiments may include videos of a ball dropped onto a hard floor, a rotating mop, a homemade pendulum oscillating and the time for n oscillations being asked to be measured using a smart phone’s stopwatch and estimate g, The purpose is to attach measurements to familiar events. Students are asked what to measure, what to neglect, and which equation is justified by the conditions. The programme does not assign dangerous experiments involving mains electricity, chemicals, or projectiles. In addition standard experiment is given as an interactive html application (Simple pendulum, Screw gauge, Vernier Callipers, Sonometer to name a few)to enable the students to get a feel of procedure, take reading and also practice calculations before they perform the actual experiment. Check out the google drive link below to perform the simple pendulum experiment (open the application in any Browser like chrome) 4.4 Worked Numericals, voice over screen recordings, and theory PDFs Solved numericals show the discipline of listing known quantities, naming the principle, writing the equation before substitution, retaining units, and interpreting the answer. The author uses the URAS method. URAS is an acronym for Understand, Recall, Arrange, Substitute & Solve. The method can be viewed in the HTML app in the drive for which the link is given below. Voice-over screen recordings adds the reasoning that a page on the textbook or class notes may omit, why a 4 method was abandoned, how a sign arose, and which error is likely. PDFs of theory support examination preparation but are not intended to replace problem solving. 4.5 Browser-based HTML apps/Quizzes The most complete lessons are small HTML applications opened in a phone with an internet Browser like Chrome. Usually containing ten or twelve navigable pages, they combine concise text, figures or animations, and, where helpful, recorded voice or short video is also embedded. They keep a lesson as one self-contained unit, requiring no app installation, and allow the teacher to control pace and sequence. The same framework supports timed quizzes. Each student receives a quiz that has one attempt, and a score above a threshold that automatically produces a certificate. The certificate is modest but recognises performance under time and single-attempt conditions, making the exercise closer to examination practice than an endlessly refreshable form. 4.6 Question types and physics challenges The programme uses familiar multiple-choice, numerical, and short-answer formats. Challenges form its distinctive layer, students wrestle with them rather than passively consume content, and teachers participate as moderators and learners. Productive disagreement is settled by calculation. 4.7 Cartoons: Oblelix asks, Asterix answers George asks and Young Sheldon Answers. The cartoon series uses Obelix to ask the thoughtful, sometimes sideways question a student may really have, and Asterix to supply the necessary distinction, condition, exception or additional calculation. A second series uses George Jr. to pose everyday confusions and Young Sheldon to resolve them. Both series present physics in a memorable conversational form; they are not a break from the subject. The characters make precision shareable. The cartoons are not a break from physics, they present physics in a memorable and humorous conversational format. Other imaginative characters are used as cartoon to explain and drive home an important idea or concept. 4.8 Guided Experiment An Html application that prompts the students to take measurements in an experiment, calculate the result, plot graph etc. The idea behind this is that before the student actually performs the experiment in the class he will get an idea of what is to be done, how and what to calculate, plot etc. It is also intended to serve as a quick ready reference before a practical examination 5. Working with generative AI without surrendering the subject Generative AI speeds up layouts, draft explanations, and motion graphics, but it can invent forces and units or create quantitative-looking graphs with no physical meaning. The project therefore treats AI as a teaching assistant, not as a physics expert. The teacher remains responsible for correctness. Prompt refinement is part of the teaching workflow. Instead of asking for “a GIF of a bouncing ball,” a useful prompt specifies the drop height, fractional energy loss at each impact, plotted quantity, required breaks in the trace, and prohibited decoration. The result is checked against a prior calculation. If the mathematics predicts infinitely many diminishing bounces but finite total distance, the animation must not falsely imply that motion ends after four bounces unless the omission is explained.5 The same checking applies to posters and HTML prose. Fluent writing can still confuse mass with weight or change the value of g without explanation. AI is also used to generate near-miss distractors based on real errors, such as omitting one-half, using rebound height instead of drop height, or confusing a weight component with the normal force. Such distractors are retained only after teacher verification. What is Checked. Before any AI-generated material is posted, the teacher essentially checks four elements. a) For equations, the symbolic form, the physical conditions under which it applies, the units, and the algebraic steps are verified against a hand calculation. b) For graphs and animations, axes, units, direction of motion, conservation (or its deliberate violation), and the time evolution are checked so that the visual does not contradict the physics; an animation that cannot be defended on the blackboard is rejected. c) For numerical solutions, the principle chosen, the substitution, the units, and the final physical interpretation are examined. d) Near-miss distractors generated for quizzes are retained only when they reflect known student errors rather than random wording. This checklist keeps the existing human (Teacher)verification practice reproducible by other teachers. I have even built a dictionary of Physics and Quantum Physics suitable for class XI level. 6. Assessment, feedback, and the certificate Assessment has three layers: informal chat responses in which students post and discuss working, structured, timed single-attempt HTML quizzes with certificates issued above a threshold, Challenge and practice numericals. These do not replace school examinations, but together create repeated cycles of attempt, feedback, and return. Conceptual errors likely to help others are corrected publicly, while personal work is corrected privately. Because teachers are present, each public correction also becomes a brief professionaldevelopment note for colleagues. 7. What has been observed, and what has not been measured Students and teachers have generally appreciated the initiative. Group activity shows students opening posters, playing with GIFs, attempting quizzes, valuing certificates, and reusing material in classrooms. These observations indicate engagement and practical usefulness, not measured learning gain. they do not constitute measured evidence of improved conceptual understanding or achievement. No pre- or post-test scores, retention data, or comparison group have been collected. The defensible claim is therefore limited to the feasibility of delivering a dense, numerical-first, multimodal physics programme through a free WhatsApp group under continuous teacher oversight. Stronger claims about learning gains require systematic data, which is planned for the next phase. 8. Limitations, risks, and ethics WhatsApp buries older lessons, and new members do not automatically receive earlier material. HTML links help only when retained. Data costs remain, and a timed quiz on a shared family 6 phone may not match the experience of a personal device. Visible group activity can also conceal students who never attempt a numerical. Students may submit chatbot-generated answers they cannot defend. The response is not an unenforceable ban, but a culture in which an answer must include a principle and working. There is also a risk that the teacher’s voice will be replaced by AI. Recorded voice-overs in the author’s voice, home videos, and the Oblique–Asterix cartoons help preserve human presence. Copyright and provenance require continuous attention. Public clips must be properly attributed and used within applicable platform and rules. AI-generated figures must not be presented as experimental photographs. Dangerous experiments are not assigned. Sustainability is another concern: one volunteer is effectively operating a small media unit, and the participating teachers are only the beginning of a succession plan that I have in mind. All third-party material is either created by the author, generated under the author’s direction with generative AI tools, or used under applicable educational fair-use provisions with clear attribution. Public video clips, textbook diagrams or any other external content, when used, are credited at the point of posting (source, creator and date). AI-generated images and animations are are never presented as experimental photographs. No copyrighted character likenesses beyond the brief, transformative cartoon dialogues described above are used. 9. A modest agenda for adoption and study Teachers can begin with one concept poster per week, one motion–graph GIF, one voiceover worked numerical, and one single-attempt HTML quiz. Research should use a concept inventory, implement the multimodal curve, and compare outcomes with a class receiving conventional notes and textbook problems alone with a group that is taught by this method. As of now it is a supplement. Interviews could examine students who attempt challenges but avoid quizzes, or collect certificates without explaining the underlying ideas. Two especially useful questions are whether pairing filmed motion with a real-time graph improves kinematic-graph understanding, and whether a certificate for a timed single-attempt quiz increases the willingness to attempt a challenge. These are planned in the next phase of this experiment. 10. Conclusion A free WhatsApp group is an unlikely but practical place to teach physics because it is where students already are. This initiative uses AI as an assistant rather than as a know all and combines several representations deliberately: a poster isolates an idea, a GIF or home film makes it move, a PDF and voice-over show how a number is obtained, an HTML app controls study, a timed quiz tests understanding under constraint, a challenge tests transfer when the first formula fails, and Oblique and Asterix return the idea as dialogue. The model is a practitioner’s proposal, not a completed proof of the efficacy of the model. Its central claim is simple if Class 11 students are to learn physics and master the concepts, they must use concepts in calculation confidently and a multimodal approach to explain the concept is effective.7 Acknowledgements The students and teachers in the WhatsApp group have provided the initiative’s practical test by staying, arguing, attempting problems, and identifying unclear material. No funding was received or fee charged. The named tools were used as publicly available services, their owners bear no responsibility for the pedagogical choices described here. Declaration and practical safeguards The initiative is a free, voluntary educational practice conducted through a single WhatsApp group. Participation requires no fee and no formal enrolment. The group is moderated by the author and a small number of practising physics teachers. Students are advised not to share personal contact details or photographs of themselves or classmates. When a student’s written work is discussed, it is either anonymised or the discussion is moved to a private message. No identifiable student data, screenshots of personal chats, or examination scores have been collected or reported. The manuscript contains only general qualitative observations of group activity. Materials posted in the group (posters, GIFs, HTML links, voice-overs and PDFs) are intended for the educational use of members. Members are asked not to redistribute the materials outside the group for commercial purposes. The author retains copyright in original content created for the programme. References 1. Bouhnik, D., & Deshen, M. (2014). WhatsApp goes to school: Mobile instant messaging between teachers and students. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 13, 217–231. https://doi.org/10.28945/2051 2. Klieger, A., & Goldsmith, L. (2020). Expanding physics learning beyond classroom boundaries—a case study. Physics Education, 55(2), 025004. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ab5d68 3. John, D. K., & Sreedevi, P. S. (2021). Effect of social media enabled learning in enhancing achievement in physics at higher secondary level. Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators, 10(1), 141–145. 4. Boateng, G., Atompoya, E., Badu, P., John, S., Ansah, S., Agyeman-Budu, P., & Kumbol, V. W.-A. (2026). Adesua: Development and feasibility study of an AI WhatsApp bot for science learning in West Africa. arXiv:2605.15376. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15376 5. National Council of Educational Research and Training. Physics: Textbook for Class XI. New Delhi: NCERT. Till date 10 chapters have been covered and several multimodal methods have been shared. Asmall sample of the material prepared and used can be accessed from the links given below. Pdf primers of each topic, question papers, animated videos, PPT with audio etc have not been shared. Any errors in the material that may have crept in is solely due to the author and may be pointed out.The author urges the reader to check out the material shared. Comments and suggestions for improvement would be welcome. Any class XI student or teacher who desire to join the SimplePhysics WhatsApp group may contact me via email at [email protected] Copy and paste the link in any Browser like chrome to view the material Mode Topic Link Concept poster Wave motion https://tinyurl.com/2enn6zdu MCQs & Solution Wave motion https://tinyurl.com/msau274j Voice over (Worked Examples) Wave motion https://tinyurl.com/3zptctby Challenge Numerical Conservation of Mech energy frictional force and work energy theorem https://tinyurl.com/w557xzd8 Gifs Projectile motion https://tinyurl.com/mrxtnffv Graphs Projectile Motion https://tinyurl.com/4b4fk36h Experiment(HTML) g by Simple Pendulum https://g-simplependulum.netlify.app/ Home Videos Bernoulli’s principle and Modern Mop https://tinyurl.com/2fbn2at6 Quiz (HTML) https://quiz-oscillations.netlify.app/ HTML file Physics Dictionary https://dictionary1pu.netlify.app About the author. K M Raghavendran has close to four decades of experience as a Physics teacher in Higher secondary and UG level. He is a life member of IAPT since 1986 and one of the founding members of Karnataka Physics Association (KPA). He is passionate about teaching Physics and adopting ICT in classrooms. Currently he is the president of IAPT sub RC12A.This article is based on an evolving pedagogical attempt he is involved in currently. ***