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Physics Outreach in Schools: Evaluating New Interventions for Excellence (PHOENIX)
As part of the cluster of excellence „Center for Chiral Electronics“ (EXC 3112), which is funded as part of the German federal and state governments' strategy for excellence at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, FU Berlin, and University of Regensburg, with TU Dortmund University as an institutional partner, the PHOENIX project is investigating how young people can be attracted to science and, specifically, physics. To this end, various intervention approaches are being developed and evaluated with a view to course and subject choices, with the aim of ensuring that students perceive physics as relevant and potentially suitable for themselves in their self-image. In particular, the focus is also on groups that are underrepresented in this field.
Funding
Project description
The central goal of the PHOENIX project is to investigate how students can be attracted to science, and specifically physics, in the long term. To this end, various intervention approaches are being developed and evaluated with the aim of ensuring that students perceive physics as relevant and potentially suitable for their self-image, and that they choose appropriate courses at school or fields of study at university on this basis.
The different intervention modules are based on established concepts, such as the promotion of the perceived relevance of physics, employing positive role models, and conceptions of the nature of science. By closely cooperating with our project partners at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Regensburg, complementary perspectives stemming from both psychology and the didactics of physics will equally be considered and integrated in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the intervention.
Students participate in the longitudinal study from ninth grade until after they have left school. While in school, intervention units will be implemented yearly. All students take part in the intervention, with a special focus on those groups of students who are often underrepresented in the physics domain despite their potential. These are especially girls and young women as well as students from non-academic households and families with a history of migration. In total, 1500 students from 45 schools in the states Bavaria, Berlin, and Saxony-Anhalt, as well as other schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, will participate in the intervention study.
The project PHOENIX is part of the outreach program of the cluster of excellence “Center for Chiral Electronics” (EXC 3112), a joint project of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the Free University of Berlin, and the University of Regensburg, in cooperation with other institutions such as the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics and the Center for Research on Education and School Development at TU Dortmund University.
Lead researcher at IFS
Project management
Project team
External project partners
- Prof. Dr. Thorid Rabe (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Physics)
- Prof. Dr. Karsten Rincke (University of Regensburg, Didactics of Physics)
Associated project team
- Dr. Sebastian Vogel (IFS, TU Dortmund University)
Scientific Advisory Board
PHOENIX is supported by renowned international and national experts.
Further information
Further information on the Cluster of Excellence can be found here: Center for Chiral Electronics