This morning, Wednesday, January 22, 205, Physics Education Study Program student, Ristika Wulandari defended her research results entitled Development of Digital Teaching Materials Based on Socio Scientific Issues (SSI) on Static Electricity Material to Improve Students’ Learning Motivation and Scientific Argumentation in front of the panelists. Under the guidance of Dr. Ellianawati, M.Sc., Ristika Wulandari conducted research at SMA N 4 Semarang involving 130 grade XII students. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rosnah Zakaria from the UiTM Applied Physics Study Program who had collaborated with the Physics Education Study Program in 2022 became the external examiner in this thesis defense. This shows the consistency of the cooperative relationship between UNNES and UiTM. Dr. Ros, her nickname, gave her appreciation for Ristika’s research performance because she succeeded in combining SSI into Physics learning. Controversial cases related to the application of Static Electricity in everyday life such as cases of Electric Shock from Capacitors, how electric cars and power banks work, and lightning arresters are reviewed well and are able to significantly increase student motivation. The scientific argumentation skills that can be optimally developed through this research are claim and warrant skills. Backing and rebuttal skills still need improvement. The internal Examiner Team, Dr. Bambang Subali, M.Pd. and Dr. Suharto Linuwih, M.Sc. also agreed that the efforts made in this research were very good and succeeded in producing IPR and manuscripts that will be submitted to Jurnal Sinta 2 and 3. Several suggestions were made at the end of the session including by Dr. Ros about the need to add animation in providing a visual depiction of the physical process of the concept of static electricity and Dr. Bambang suggested further analyzing the level of argumentation achieved by students through the developed teaching materials. The session went dynamically and Ristika was able to answer questions fluently and satisfactorily. This is the starting point for the Physics Education Study Program to instill achievements and foster cooperation that has been built as well as real efforts to meet the IKU 3 and IKU 5 targets set by FMIPA UNNES.
