Hall of Fame: Extra-curricular Activities, Awards, Presentations and Contributions

September 2024

This year again, focusTerra was the host for another successful physics show during the Lange Nacht der Zürcher Museen. The various shown experiments introduced the audience to oscillations, waves and resonance phenomena, all guided by the question "why did the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse in 1940". The insights gained during the physics show helped to end the show with a bang: a wine glass burst by exposing it to a single frequency sound wave.

June 2024

For the second time after 2023, Andreas Eggenberger was giving a workshop in the EPT Summer School. He presented observations and conclusions for intermediate-size group work, which he made in the framework of P+. By challenging all teaching assistants to investigate a simple physics experiment in groups of 6 in very limited time, they could get a glimpse of challenges but also the potential for these group sizes.

June 2024

The successful project-based physics lab P+ was presented at the Refresh Teaching event of ETH. Andreas Eggenberger presented the evolutions from the pilot project in P+ in 2023 to the Innovedum-funded second edition in 2024. The slides can be found on the Refresh Teaching website.

May 2024

Prof. Daniela Rupp and Andreas Eggenberger presented the P+ at the Learning and Teaching Fair of ETH Zurich. This fair is dedicated to highly successful teaching projects, and is the kick-off for the KITE Award ceremony (see May 2022). The contribution of the P+ can be found on the L&T website.

May 2024

On 15th of May, Carl Wieman, Nobel Laureate and passionate didactics specialist, visited the P+ and enganged in a discussion of how to teach experimental skills in an ideal way. The discussion with students and teaching assistants was stimulating for all of us. We feel honoured and proud that after only 2 semesters of P+ it is already considered a highly valuable and beneficial learning opportunity for our motivated students!

February 2024

One of your newly developed experiments has been published in the American Journal of Physics: Here is the link to the publication.

December 2023

In December 2023, a proposal for financial support for P+ within the framework of the Innovedum Initiative by the Rector of ETH Zurich was approved. This recognition is not only a testament to the high quality of P+ and its value to education, but also paves the way for the next step to further develop P+ in a sustainable and efficient, scalable teaching format. There is a nice article about P+ on the PHYS-Website.

September 2023

Physikshow an der langen Nacht der Museen: As part of the "langen Nacht der Zürcher Museen", Andreas Eggenberger captivated the audience in three well-attended physics shows late in the evening: At 7 pm, 10 pm, and midnight, various experiments on the theme of "Light and Color" were presented. The experiments from the collection of lecture experiments at the D-PHYS captured, amazed and enlightened the audience. The events were organized by focusTerra, where the audience could also enjoy numerous other attractions. For further reading, you can find a Bericht zur langen Nacht der Zürcher Museen, which has been published on the D-PHYS news page.

June 2023

Andreas Eggenberger was invited to the EPT Summer School which was organised by the EPT Hub at ETH Zurich. He presented ideas on how to include simple yet effective hands-on experiments in regular exercise classes. Additionally, he challgened all participants (mostly PhD students from physics or other related fields) to determine the graviational acceleration g in different ways as precisely as possible, by only using everyday's items. With his experience and vast knowledge about experimenting also on a simple level, he could inspire his audience and hopefully contributed to more lively exercise classes in the future.

Spring Semester 2023

Pilot Project: P+ In the spring semester 2023, a pilot projected called "Projected-oriented Physics Lab for Undergraduate Sudents" (PPLUS, or shorter: P+) was launched. P+ is an alternative to the regular physics lab P2, which offered 18 motivated students the possibility to plan, build, perform and analyse one's own experiments under supervision of an experienced teaching assistant. This pilot project was very successful, as not only the feedback from students showed, but also when evaluating the learning progress of the students. In fact, it was so successful that even people outside D-PHYS heard about it, and we are strongly encouraged to continue and further develop such project-based learning opportunities. We take this advice seriously and are preparing things to ensure that P+ will become a permanent alternative to the regular lab, and that P+ will contribute to promote project-based teaching not only within D-PHYS. Stay tuned!

November 2022

In November 2022, Andreas Eggenberger was asked to offer workshops for young interested people at one of the "Treffpunkt Science City" events (see some general impressions, including snippeds from the workshop, in the video below). About 70 teenagers listened to a short introduction to spectroscopy, and could build their own spectrometer to take home and investigate various light sources.

The programme for the series in fall 2022 can be found here here, and the building instructions for the spectometer are available on request (see contact on the right hand side).

May 2022

The physics lab with its online experiments that were developped during the Corona Pandemic in 2020, has been awarded with the KITE Award 2022.

The award "is dedicated to teaching projects and initiatives which were developed at ETH during its semesters of remote teaching", as the Lecturer's Conference of ETH Zurich (KdL) states. It acknowledges our efforts to maintain a high didactical level of education despite restrictions such as lockdowns or unavailability of equipment.

We are overwhelmed to have received this award, and we would like to express our gratitude towards all the motivated and enthusiastic teaching assistants which, in the first hours and days of the lockdown, spent countless hours to help the physics lab switching to a remote format.

2020

During the lockdown due to the Corona pandemic, the physics lab of ETH was the only lab course at ETH which switched form on-site experiments to remote experiments. Not just that, within about two weeks, 10 new experiments were developped which several hundred students could perform at home with only basic equipment. This effort, carried by Andreas Eggenberger and some highly motivated teaching assistants, allowed all students to complete the physics lab during the semester without any delay. Later, this was honored by ETH with the prestigious KITE Award (see above).

2019

In September 2019, a BMS class from Basel visited the physics lab and performed several experiments in the lab. These experiments served as basis for the final project work of these students. The atmosphere was very relaxed, and all the students passed their course. For the first time in the history of the physics lab at ETH, students from other schools could visit the lab and perform experiments for scientifc and educational purposes! This collaboration was appreciated so much that classes from Basel now come to ETH on a yearly basis, and they are also offered a small tour through the Laboratory for Ion Beam Physics.