SENSE presented at the Spring Conference of the German Physical Society (DPG) 2024
As one of the oldest universities in Europe, the University of Greifswald (founded 1456) made a more than decent host for the Spring Meeting of the “Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft” (German Physical Society) DPG on 26 – 29 February 2024. With over 55’000 members, the DPG is the largest – and oldest – physical society in the world. Each year the different divisions hold multiple spring conferences to share ideas & results amongst members and guests while connecting with each other in formal and less formal settings.
Our consortium member PH Weingarten (‘University of Education’) from Southern Germany, represented by David Bockstahler, went all the way up to the Baltic Sea to present the SENSE. project at this prestigious place. After the applied abstract allocated in DPG’s division of ‘Physics Education’ was approved, the presentation was assigned to the category ‘physic didactics and inclusion’ – which does partially but not exclusively fit our aspirations. Nonetheless we were invited to contribute to a poster session on the third day (Feb 28th) along with various other presenters from a broad range of institutions with educational emphasis.
The poster to present our project (see below) was intentionally vague and filled with keywords, to catch the attention of possible readers passing by and gain their curiosity to engage in talks. While some inspiring and interesting chats about the rather unfamiliar STEAM education and the project itself arose, the ‘Physics Education’ poster sessions also offered opportunities to initiate discussions with professionals who were showing their approaches, intentions, and results – which led to insights to take home. Some attendees announced to stay tuned to our project via the website, while a few even offered to get in touch with each other.
As soon as more detailed results from the STEAM Labs’ implementation phases have emerged, we intend to present once again and make use of the useful feedback received as well as the valuable insights shared by the conference attendees. Beyond, this will provide opportunities to disseminate our results and enlarge our network.
David Bockstahler is a scientific researcher at the Weingarten University of Education, Germany.