A dissertation project in physics didactics examined how young people can be introduced to a differentiated understanding of research. The video by doctoral student Jan Heysel shows how the project was realized at the European School Bornheim.
Scientific institutions want young people who are hungry for knowledge. From the very beginning, they should be interested in scientific work in order to understand the world better. In fact, young people usually have no idea what science is about and what it means. Didactician Jan Heysel has “experienced in internships at schools that young people’s ideas about the process and results of scientific research are often naive.”
In order to change that, Heysel developed the learning arrangement of an EduChallenge: ModelEducation. Young people immerse themselves in scientific research in the school project. They design your own research project in your upper school physics class and complete the process until the results are published. In this way, they learn about scientific modeling, peer review and other key concepts of modern research and become aware for the first time of what constitutes their own research concept and ultimately their own actions and experiments.
Educchallenge: Heysel developed modeling as part of his dissertation and “I’m not aware of a comparable learning arrangement,” he says. “In this way, we made the phenomenon of a research process more accessible in the classroom so that young people were able to develop a differentiated image of scientific research, which is essential, for example, in the correct interpretation of results from climate models.”
Through an accompanying empirical study, Heysel found that “a large proportion of the young people participating in the learning arrangement developed significantly more differentiated ideas about research.” While before the EduChallenge: Model Building, the young people surveyed had understood models as copies or simplifications, the new survey showed After implementing the learning arrangement, there was a clear learning effect for the students: they now began to understand research as a differentiated investigation of hypothetical assumptions.
He developed the concept together with a project partner at the University of Heidelberg and supported by the Deutsche Telekom Foundation. Together with five students who contributed their master's theses to the project, EduChallenge: Model Building was developed as an example in three cycles from 2021 to 2024 and tested by 10 teachers with over 250 young people. “By working with the schools, we were able to develop this practical teaching concept that brings new impetus to teaching practice and can be used realistically.”
The practical result for schools is ready: In the learning environment, which is now available via a platform from the University of Bonn not only to the schools previously involved but also to all schools, the task for the young people is to learn to model a throwing movement from a sport of their choice and publish your own results as scientific articles in an online journal.
The video by and with Jan Heysel gives an insight into the development of the project, its implementation at the European School Bornheim and shows the parallel to current basic research. “Ultimately, the video is an invitation to take part in the EduChallenge: Model Education yourself.”
Heysel would like to thank very much for the great support, especially from the European School Bornheim, their physics teacher Achim Kittelmann and his course, also Johanna Rätz and Greta Wieners for their collaboration in the project and in the video production, and finally Dr. Maude Charmetant for insight into her research and Prof. Dr. Frank Bertoldi for the support throughout the entire project, last but least Denis Nasser for the intensive cooperation in the video production.