Kick-Off Meeting of the CCE Cluster of Excellence with IFS Participation
To kick off the joint work of the Center for Chiral Electronics (CCE) cluster of excellence, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the federal and state governments' strategy for excellence, around 100 participants from the three applicant universities Halle-Wittenberg, FU Berlin, and Regensburg, as well as the participating institutions Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics and TU Dortmund University, for a three-day professional exchange.
The cluster's research focuses on chirality. Chirality refers to the property of an object that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image—just like left and right hands. In nature, chirality is a fundamental design principle that provides structural stability and directionality. The CCE is investigating how this principle can be used in electronic systems, thereby enabling new functionalities, materials, and components.
This topic highlights how important physic is for many areas of modern society and thus represents a key to innovation, technological progress, and solving global challenges. Nevertheless, not enough young people choose physic in high school or as a subject at university, and various groups such as women, young people from socially disadvantaged families, and those with a migrant background have been systematically underrepresented to date. As a result, much potential remains untapped. At the kick-off meeting, Professor Nele McElvany from the Center for Research on Education and School Development (IFS), together with colleagues from physics education at the Universities of Halle-Wittenberg (Professor Thorid Rabe) and Regensburg (Professor Karsten Rincke) presented the theoretical and empirical state of research on existing disparities and the factors influencing young people's choice of courses and subjects, as well as the project based on this research, “Physics Outreach in Schools: Evaluating New Interventions for Excellence” (PHOENIX).
The PHOENIX Project
During the seven-year funding period of the Cluster of Excellence, the PHOENIX project will conduct an internationally unique psychological longitudinal intervention study with over 1,500 students in several German states. The central starting point for the experimental study, which involves different intervention and control conditions, is the realization that it is not enough to make physics interesting to young people if they consciously or unconsciously perceive physics or science in general as incompatible with their own identity and as individually significant. Building on established psychological and subject-specific didactic concepts, an annual intervention program is being developed, implemented, and evaluated against this backdrop, in which students are accompanied from the ninth grade until graduation.
The researchers expect the study to provide comprehensive insights into which approaches are most effective for proximal and distal outcomes such as motivational and performance-related characteristics as well as course and subject choices, which mechanisms of action are effective, and which differential effects occur for different groups of students.
The PHOENIX team
At TU Dortmund University, the interdisciplinary project team is complemented by junior professor Justine Stang-Rabrig, Dr. Elisabeth Graf, and Carolin Horsthemke, M.A. PHOENIX is supported by an international Scientific Advisory Board and works closely with the “Color meets Flavor” Cluster of Excellence at TU Dortmund University.
More information: PHOENIX project website und Center for Chiral Electronics