ABSTRACT

The study sought to determine the available Physics Laboratory Equipment for the teaching and learning of physics in senior secondary schools in Uganda as well as the extent of utilizing the available equipment. The research design adopted for the study was a descriptive survey. The sample consisted of nine hundred students who were randomly chosen and fifty Physics teachers who were purposively selected from five senior secondary schools in Hoima. Three instruments were used for the collection of data for the study. They are a self-designed questionnaire tagged “Physics Laboratory Equipment Questionnaire” (PLEQ) with a reliability index of 0.72, a checklist of Physics equipment and a Physics Achievement Test (PAT) to measure students’ achievement. The objectives of the study included: To find out the impact of utilization of physics laboratory equipment on students’ academic performance of physics in USE schools in 1-lime municipality. To determine the availability of the required physics laboratory equipment for teaching physics. To find out the effectiveness of laboratory equipment in teaching physics. The results showed that the optimal utilization of physics laboratory equipment is effective in the teaching of Physics. The study concluded that a science laboratory with adequate equipment is a critical variable in determining the quality of output from senior secondary school Physics.