Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation Volume 4, Number 3, Tahun 2020, pp. 221-226 P-ISSN: 2597-422x E-ISSN: 2549-2675 Open Access: https://ejournal.undiksha.ac.id/index.php/JERE Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: leomarich.casinillo@vsu.edu.ph (Leomarich F. Casinillo) Effect of Physics Education Technology (PhET) Simulations: Evidence from STEM Students’ Performance Ananias N. Yunzal, Jr *1 , Leomarich F. Casinillo 2 1 Baybay City Senior High School, Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines 2 Visayas State University, Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines A B S T R A C T This study aimed to find out if Physics Education Technology (PhET) simulations can improve the performance of the Baybay City Senior High School STEM students on the selected topic in physics, that is, electrodynamics. This study utilized a quasi-experimental type where pre-test and post-test are multiple choice type of test and involved 72 STEM students. The grouping of the students was identified based on their sections, one section served as the control group and other is the experimental group. Experimental group is allowed to play the PhET simulation for an hour utilizing their vacant period every day, while the control is not exposed to any activity that intervene leading to the creation of formal construct of ideas in electrodynamics. Result showed that mean scores of the control and experimental groups does not imply a significant difference, despite of the interest shown by the students in playing the said simulation. Perhaps, students are more attracted to simulation in which they have gone through during their lectures. Furthermore, study shows that the performance of students before and after exposure to PhET simulation does not necessarily pose a big difference but indicates a slight improvement to their performances. 1. Introduction Physics is one of the subjects in high school where student’s interest is profoundly less due to its complex and abstract form. As reported, the status of the physics education in the Philippines is facing challenges. In which challenges resulted to low academic performance that is deeply-rooted concern by the Philippine education system (Casinillo & Aure, 2018; Sarmiento & Orale, 2016). One of the challenges, faced is the lack of equipment in physics instruction (Orleans, 2007). In relation to this, there must be an intervention on how to increase the interest of the students to learn more Physics in a more meaningful manner. (Schwartz et al., 2005) emphasized that students learn only a little when the concepts are present in traditional classroom demonstration and that there must be engagement to increase the efficacy of learning. The performance of the students in Physics nowadays is declining due to challenging problems (Mekonnen, 2014). This declining pattern of the students’ performance in Physics is based on the different researches and studies administered by the different researchers (Adams, 2010; Batuyong & Antonio, 2018; Podolefsky et al., 2009; Rutten et al., 2012; Scheid et al., 2010) stated that performance of students in Physics is a scenario that needs to be addressed by teachers which is a challenge of Science educators to devise or innovate ways to make teaching-learning stimulating. For this reason, Physics educators should find ways and interventions such that it can enhance the performance of the students in the said field (Antonio, 2015). Most of the researchers shows that the use of instructional materials can improve the learning of learners. The use of laboratory manuals and learning modules (Orleans, 2007), computer-assisted instructional program (Waight & Abd‐El‐Khalick, 2007) and other digital technologies (Armstrong & A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 23 July 2020 Received in revised Form 09 August 2020 Accepted 19 August 2020 Available online 30 August 2020 Keywords: PhET simulations; electrodynamics; quasi- experimental type; STEM students’ performance