cultures) and the learning effects on the participants. Interesting and important
conclusion is that such a high-quality course design can be applied broadly.
12.1 Introduction
The knowledge society requires innovative products and services, and so workforce
must be able to apply knowledge in innovative ways. It is challenging, because many
students entering technical universities are not able to cope with open tasks; they are
not trained in divergent thinking. About secondary school students, there has been a
decline in interest for science (OECD 2006); many school students do not see
science and technology attractive, relevant, and related to jobs. Therefore, the overall
challenge in physics education today is probably attracting more students for Science
and Technology; this results in driving questions in physics education: How to make
physics more challenging, relevant, and attractive for students? How to stimulate
their development of creative thinking, problem solving, and other higher cognitive
skills?
In many countries, governments have been innovating the science curriculum,
considering these questions. For example, to let students experience physics as a
relevant topic for them, students’ authentic projects is included in the school agenda,
and the teacher is stimulated to link regular physics lessons to real life. To show
students that physics itself is still very much alive, modern topics (e.g. quantum
physics, elementary particles), and applied physics (medical imaging, biophysics)
are introduced. More connections between schools and universities, research institutes, companies, outreach are established, and more facilities for improvements of
school labs are provided. To prepare students also for higher cognitive skills, the
curriculum includes students’ own investigations (with minds-on) and design tasks
(divergent thinking).
Since the 1980s, advances in technology and physics education research have
stimulated intensive development of Information Communication Technology (ICT)
for data logging with sensors, video measurement, and dynamical modelling. These
tools resemble those of scientists and engineers but are designed for educational
purposes and primarily aimed at classroom use. Can the technology applied in
physics education bring us closer to the desired goals? Clearly it has been demonstrated that technology can help to make physics education more relevant, more
linked to real life, and more authentic. And can increase the opportunities for own
investigations by the students. So it really has an added value, and not just provides
another way of teaching the same. Many initiatives such as STEM or STEAM
(USA), MINT (Germany), ICT in IBSE (EC) are the more recent Alphabet Soup
acronyms. In this chapter, we present the main contributions of technology: showing
students how physicists work today (e.g. beats plus signal analysis, numerical model
for cooling down); enabling authentic projects by powerful tools for doing investigations (e.g. reentry of a capsule in atmosphere, bungee jumping, bouncing balls);
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T. Ellermeijer and T.-B. Tran
conclusion is that such a high-quality course design can be applied broadly.
12.1 Introduction
The knowledge society requires innovative products and services, and so workforce
must be able to apply knowledge in innovative ways. It is challenging, because many
students entering technical universities are not able to cope with open tasks; they are
not trained in divergent thinking. About secondary school students, there has been a
decline in interest for science (OECD 2006); many school students do not see
science and technology attractive, relevant, and related to jobs. Therefore, the overall
challenge in physics education today is probably attracting more students for Science
and Technology; this results in driving questions in physics education: How to make
physics more challenging, relevant, and attractive for students? How to stimulate
their development of creative thinking, problem solving, and other higher cognitive
skills?
In many countries, governments have been innovating the science curriculum,
considering these questions. For example, to let students experience physics as a
relevant topic for them, students’ authentic projects is included in the school agenda,
and the teacher is stimulated to link regular physics lessons to real life. To show
students that physics itself is still very much alive, modern topics (e.g. quantum
physics, elementary particles), and applied physics (medical imaging, biophysics)
are introduced. More connections between schools and universities, research institutes, companies, outreach are established, and more facilities for improvements of
school labs are provided. To prepare students also for higher cognitive skills, the
curriculum includes students’ own investigations (with minds-on) and design tasks
(divergent thinking).
Since the 1980s, advances in technology and physics education research have
stimulated intensive development of Information Communication Technology (ICT)
for data logging with sensors, video measurement, and dynamical modelling. These
tools resemble those of scientists and engineers but are designed for educational
purposes and primarily aimed at classroom use. Can the technology applied in
physics education bring us closer to the desired goals? Clearly it has been demonstrated that technology can help to make physics education more relevant, more
linked to real life, and more authentic. And can increase the opportunities for own
investigations by the students. So it really has an added value, and not just provides
another way of teaching the same. Many initiatives such as STEM or STEAM
(USA), MINT (Germany), ICT in IBSE (EC) are the more recent Alphabet Soup
acronyms. In this chapter, we present the main contributions of technology: showing
students how physicists work today (e.g. beats plus signal analysis, numerical model
for cooling down); enabling authentic projects by powerful tools for doing investigations (e.g. reentry of a capsule in atmosphere, bungee jumping, bouncing balls);
128
T. Ellermeijer and T.-B. Tran