1. Linz School of Education (LSEd)
Dept. of STEM Education
Division for Didactics of Physics
Ass.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Erich Steinbauer
Didactics of Physics at the JKU What are we doing? What are our intentions?
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

2. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
History
Founded in 1991 as Dept. for Didactics of Physics within the Institute of Experimental Physics
At that time it was a pure service institution for providing
Experiments shown in physics lectures
Practical exercises for physics and physics teacher students
Sepcialized lectures and practical exercises for physics teacher students
From 1995: extension of activities to present state
In-service teacher training, programs for giftet pupils, …
2016/17: Transfer of the Division to LSEd
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

3. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Staff
Permanent
Christian Walter Physics teacher at lower/upper secondary school responsible for the education of physics teacher students (practical exercises for school experiments)
NN (hopefully) responsible for teacher education, student lab experiments, lecture experiments
Erich Steinbauer Head of the division, atomic physicist responsible for many things (see later)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

4. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
External Lecturers (not complete)
Engelbert Stütz (physics teacher) Lectures about didactics of physics
Hans Glavnik (physics teacher) Computer science in physics education
Wolfgang Rößler (physics teacher) History of physics, book author
Peter Bauer (atomic physicist) Transformation of modern physics to school level (seminar) Medical physics (lecture)
Oswald Benka (atomic physicist) Practical exercises for molecular biology Medical physics (practical exercises)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

5. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Activities of the Division (What are we doing?)
Teaching
Didactics education of physics teacher students In new curriculum: Collaboration with PH OOe, PH Linz
Practical exercises and lecture experiments for various study programs of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (TNF)
Physics Teacher Education (secondary)
Technical Physics
Electronics and Information Technology
Molecular Biosciences
Dedicated lectures and seminars
E.g. History of Physics, …
Technical Electronics, Advanced Measuring Techniques, Programming (C/C++), Medical Physics (Steinbauer)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

6. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Activities of the Division (What are we doing?)
Experimental Developments
New experiments for practical exercises and lectures
Development of electronic equipment for
Academic institutions (e.g. multichannel analyzer)
Schools (data acquision interface for diBox)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

7. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Example 1: Statistics of radioactive decay practical exercises (teacher students, technical physics)
Radioactive decays are statistically independent (reason: decay occurs in a single nucleus)
Time between 2 events has exponential distribution
Fires in buildings can be statistically independent (reason: careless people)
What about a criminal arsonist (incendiary)?
Disturbs exponential distribution!
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

8. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Example 2: Computer tomography practical exercises in medical physics (teacher students, technical physics)
Fully functional, homemade CT unit with image acquisition software
Students can interfere at any step of CT image acquisition
Spatial resolution compareable to commercial devices (< 1 mm) (see nutshell above)
However: Object diameter < 5 cm, acquisition time about 30 min
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

9. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Example 3: Data acquisition interface for schools
Schools are equipped with diBox data acquisition system for physics school experiments
diBox cannot be used with modern PCs
Interface enables diBox to be connected to USB
More than 20 programs (Labview) support data acqusition
More than 20 schools use this new interface at present
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

10. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Activities of the Division (What are we doing?)
In-service Teacher Training
Seminars on several topics
Acoustics
Modern Microscopy
Atomic and Medical Physics
Digital Electronics
School Experiments …
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

11. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Activities of the Division (What are we doing?)
Programs for gifted pupils
Cooperation with the International Academy Traunkirchen
Cooperation with Stiftung Talente Oberösterreich
Young Physics Scientists (part of JKU Young Scientists)
Information and Recruitment Programs of the JKU
Frauen in die Technik (FIT)
Studieninformationsmesse (SIM)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

12. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Example: JKU Young Scientists
Collaboration of JKU, school authorities and Upper Austrian industries
Started with polymer chemistry and physics programs (Young Polymer / Physics Scientists)
At present most disciplines at the TNF are involved
Computer Sciences
Electronics and Information Technology
Mathematics
Mechatronics
Physics
Polymer Chemistry
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

13. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Young Physics Scientists
Part 1 takes place at the JKU
Up to 25 participants per year (from upper secondary)
4 weekends (Friday / Saturday) 4 experiments from the field of „surface science“ Friday: theoretical introduction Saturday: experiments using the research equipment of the Dept. of Atomic and Surface Science (Peter Zeppenfeld)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

14. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Young Physics Scientists
Part 2 (optional): takes place at an industrial partner site, e.g. VA Stahl, Hueck Folien, BMW, …
Paid holiday internship at a partner site or at one of the physics institutes
Part 3 (optional)
The results of parts 1 and/or 2 can be used at school („Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit“)
Application for „Hans Riegel Fachpreis“ (Haribo …)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

15. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Young Physics Scientists
Experiment 1: Introduction to Surface Science
Photelectron emission microscope (PEEM)
Experiment 2: Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM)
Experiment 3: Surface analysis with electrons (Auger spectrometry)
Experiment 4: Surface analysis with ions at the AN700 particle accelerator
(RBS – Rutherford backscattering analysis)
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

16. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics

17. Didactics of Physics at the JKU
We are open for
Discussions
Collaborations …
Thank you for your attention!
Dept. of STEM Education, Division for Didactics of Physics