ISBN 9783843945356

978-3-8439-4535-6, Reihe Fachdidaktik

Julia Woithe
Designing, measuring and modelling the impact of the hands-on particle physics learning laboratory S'Cool LAB at CERN

481 Seiten, Dissertation Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (2020), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

In the framework of this PhD project, S’Cool LAB, a new out-of-school hands-on learning laboratory for high-school students was developed at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. Particle physics learning activities were designed to help students understand the physics and technologies of the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, while also fostering their interest in physics, self-beliefs and scientific curiosity. To maximise the educational potential of this unique opportunity at CERN, the development of learning activities was based on documented students’ conceptions and took recent research results about interest, curiosity, cognitive activation, and cognitive load into account.

The results of this evaluation study confirm that S’Cool LAB outperforms other hands-on out-of-school learning labs by triggering very high situational interest and self-beliefs even for students whose dispositional interest and physics self-beliefs were already very high. Here, girls benefited more from the hands-on sessions in S’Cool LAB with respect to physics interest and self-beliefs than did boys. Furthermore, S’Cool LAB demonstrates that out-of-school learning labs can foster students’ conceptual understanding significantly without compromising the positive impact on other variables, such as interest and self-beliefs. Moreover, students’ perception of support by the learning environment and by the educators in S’Cool LAB were crucial elements of their novelty experience and were associated with especially high affective outcomes. In particular, students highly appreciated the volunteering CERN scientists and perceived their support as very valuable. Furthermore, students’ perception of their cognitive preparedness and their cognitive load were vital with respect to the cognitive effects of S’Cool LAB.