On the phases of quarks and the structure of nanoparticles

Physics is one of the most disliked subjects in school, although many people show a fundamental interest in physics. For example, many have an idea what a black hole is or what is meant by beaming something. In this project we want to give students the opportunity to see what research is done in Austria. To this end we plan to prepare teaching material based on two research projects currently conducted at the Institute of Physics of the University of Graz. We will provide basic background material, but mainly we want to convey various aspects of modern research. We will create interactive computer programs about concepts and topics from our research areas. Such programs allow presenting physics that has a complicated mathematical background in a simple graphical form. In this way, modern research can be made accessible for students. For creating these programs we will use software that we also use in our research, thus giving additionally some insight into the technical working processes of a theoretical physicist. During this project we will collaborate with physics teachers from high schools teaching sixteen- to eighteen-year-old students. In addition, didactic expertise will be provided by the Physics Didactics Department of the Institute of Physics. For topics chosen from the two research projects we will initially put together background material teachers can use to prepare for using the programs in the classroom. During the winter term 2017, these topics will then be presented in class. The created material and the programs will be evaluated, adapted and afterwards made publicly available via a dedicated web page. This web page will also serve as a communication platform, giving access to the material, offering possibilities for blogs, forums and presentations of the research projects for students. The infrastructure of the web page will also be made available for future projects. Visits of the project leaders in the classrooms are foreseen to give the students the possibility to test and reflect their expectations and ideas about research in direct discussions. At the end of the project, all created material, which will be made publicly accessible, will be presented to other interested teachers in a workshop.

Usually there is only very limited overlap between the curriculum in highschools and the topics of modern basic research in physics. Nevertheless there is still a quite strong interest in abstract concepts like black holes, Higgs particles or nanotechnology. With QUANT we have developed an online platform where different modern topics of current research projects at the Institute of Physics have been prepared for teachers and pupils to supplement their education. Besides texts, animations and pictures, which can be used freely under a Creative Commons license, we also implemented a forum where questions and ideas can be discussed. Additionally there are also connections to more general topics like ethics in science or the relevance of science for society. QUANT is meant as a bridge between modern research and education in schools. It should give pupils a basic understanding of work at a University and awaken their interest in basic research. A first concrete success was the Dr. Hans Riegel award for the best Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit in Styria in the category of physics for a pupil who studied and wrote about one of the topics in QUANT.