Public research activities

"Mobile plasma workshop" for high school students finished

The last working step for the recent project of public relations is completed. The plasma truck, namely the mobile workshop for students, addresses physics courses within the last two years of school time.

The didactic concept of the workshop is the deepening of existing knowledge by connecting the pre-known physics with concepts from plasma physics. The concept was developed together with the research group physics didactics of Prof. Krabbe at the faculty of physics and astronomy at Ruhr-University Bochum. Within the framework of a Master thesis, Jasmin Schmidt analysed the existing knowledge of the students concerning plasmas. She found that a lot of experiments and descriptions of phenomena were treated during the classes, but have not been connected to plasmas.

Here, the workshop picks up the known experiments and categorises them in a new way. Finally, interested school classes in and around Bochum can book the workshop for a time period of 90 minutes. On the day of the workshop, public relations staff as well as assistant students will visit the school class. A short movie has been produced to introduce the audience to the topic. Finally, the students have the chance to work on the experiments by themselves in small groups. A booklet with information on the experiments leads through the workshop. First groups might try out the workshop after the summer holidays in case that Covid-19 measures are allowing it.

Maike Kai & Marina Prenzel, public relations CRCs