DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICS LABORATORY MANUAL BASED ON INQUIRY - BASED LABORATORY TO IMPROVE COMPETENCIES ON SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

The development of Laboratory manual for physics students in Physics Department in Medan State University is Explained. The research is aimed to develop the laboratory manual based on inquiry-based laboratory, and analyzed of student’s competencies on scientific investigations in laboratory by using laboratory manual based on inquiry-based laboratory. Types of the research is modification research and development (R & D) by Gall & Borg model, which consist of seven major steps: (1) Research and information collecting, (2) Planning, (3) Develop prelimenary form of product, (4) Preliminary field testing, (5) Main product revision, (6) Main field-testing, and (7) Operational product revision. The developed laboratory manual is standardized to meet good quality learning. The preliminary field test was carried out with three lecturer as a validator and nine persons of Physics students to laboratory to take the minicourse. For main field test, thirty-eight sciences student of Physics Class participated. Data analysed by descriptive qualitative. Based on data analysis obtained that all validators and students give positive response to laboratory manual. The developed laboratory manual is found effective to be used in teaching and learning process, and be able to motivate the students to learn Physics and provided the guidance for the students to conducted the experiments independently. Students performance in laboratory showed that the ability to peform experiments successfully without supervision, ability to organise and perform experiments safely and with awareness of priority in the laboratory, ability to show the engagement in conducting experiment, and the ability to demonstrate care and respect for the equipment set up categorized as Good Performance