Improving Critical Thinking Skills (CTS) of Students Through Wave Energy Learning Project (WELP) on Environmental Physics Lecture

This study aims to encourage the critical thinking skills (CTS) of students through the Wave Energy Learning Project (WELP) program, which is applied with an early-assisted project-based learning model (EA-PjBL) in Environmental Physics lectures. The research focuses on the topic of the environment as a renewable energy source, especially ocean wave energy. In the WELP program, there is a prototype of ocean wave energy that has been developed as a teaching aid and an initial project model that pre-service physics teachers will develop. The data collection instrument used was a description test of the concept of ocean wave energy based on CTS, performance and product assessments, peer performance assessments, lecture observation sheets, and pre-service physics teachers’ perception sheets. The research subjects were 31 pre-service physics teachers in the sixth semester of the Physics Education study program at one of the academic staff education institutions in West Nusa Tenggara. The research data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, N-gain test, t-test, and effect size analysis. The data analysis results show a strong influence on the use of the WELP program through the EA-PjBL learning model on improving the CTS of pre-service physics teachers. The CTS of pre-service teachers has increased by category after attending lectures using the WELP program. This research implies that the WELP program developed can be a model for developing lecture programs on other renewable energy materials that enhance the development of higher-order thinking skills. The project in this research triggers the younger generation to contribute to overcoming the global electrical energy crisis.