Second Funding Period 2020-2023:
O Spin+Education: Making the Invisible Visible - Technology-enhanced visualization of Spin and magnetism phenomena for teaching, learning and science communication in and out of school labs
Prof. Dr. Jochen Kuhn (Department of Physics, RPTU)
In the first funding period, project O could demonstrate that its activities can foster motivation and fascination regarding physics and especially spin and magnetism for the general public as well as students. These activities included e.g. a showcase, school labs for high school students and workshops/talks for the general public and especially girls and women. In a second step, we will now focus as a new approach on the understanding process. To foster cognitive variables, we will combine physical activities at the showcase and school labs with virtual visualizations of abstract concepts of magnetism and spin phenomena using Virtual Reality (VR)- and Augmented Reality (AR)-technologies.
First Funding Period 2016-2019:
O Spin+X outreach
Prof. Dr. Jochen Kuhn (Department of Physics, RPTU)
Spin+X outreach (project O) aims at raising awareness about the relevance of magnetism and spin phenomena for society and daily life, as well as at recruiting highly motivated and competent students for the field of magnetism. Magnetism, spin phenomena, and their technological applications have dramatically changed society and our daily life via data storage technology for internet services, magnetic sensors in cars, or imaging in medicine. Nevertheless, the underlying research field of spin and its phenomena is not well known to the general public. Furthermore, as magnetism is often perceived as an abstract concept, not only pupils but even science teachers now and then have misconceptions about magnetism and its physical basis. As a consequence, comparatively few students choose magnetism as their field of study and research (in physics, chemistry, and engineering). An increased recruitment of highly motivated and competent students for the field of magnetism is therefore an important issue of Spin+X outreach and should start as early as possible in high school education. This process will be assisted by well established “Physics Labs for Students” in high schools that exist at both TU KL and JGU M. Project O will reach the aims by fostering motivation, curiosity, and conceptual understanding relating to magnetism and spin phenomena. Specifically, we address these two major aims:
Aim 1: Set up a comprehensive showcase of Spin+X research and the general scientific field (science edutainment), and present it to the general public (including policy makers).
Aim 2: Improve high school education on magnetism and spin phenomena to attract motivated and competent students.
Information for the general public can be found here.