Physics Education Research Seminar - Out-of-school learning labs

by Tobias Bohnhardt (DLR_School_Lab Berlin), Tobias Schuettler (DLR_School_Lab Oberpfaffenhofen)

Thursday 9 Feb 2017, 16:00 → 17:30 Europe/Zurich

503/1-001 - Council Chamber (CERN)

In the last two decades numerous extracurricular science labs (“out-of-school labs”) have been established to attract young people to science and technology, especially in Germany. Now there are twelve so called DLR_School_Labs, operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). More than 36,000 pupils and thousands of teachers visit these labs every year. They offer hands-on experiments for primary and secondary school classes, advanced teacher workshops, and special courses for gifted students.

"Out of the Classroom - into the Lab!" With this slogan students at DLR_School_Lab can carry out their own experiments originating from the DLR research fields: aeronautics, space, transportation and energy. After a short presentation of the concept of the DLR_School_Labs, we will give an insight into the work and offers of the labs in Oberpfaffenhofen and Berlin. Finally some research topics of DLR as well as the implementation into the work at the DLR_School_Lab will be introduced.

In the second part of the colloquium we will focus on the research of out-of-school learning places, including the influence on the student’s attitude towards natural sciences.

In 2016 a large scale survey of all twelve DLR_School_Labs was conducted with more than 2,000 participants. The survey was especially focusing on the question, whether a visit at a lab changes upcoming selections of school courses. In the colloquium some results of this survey will be presented.

PER poster