Project-Oriented Physics Lab for Undergraduate Students

Starting in FS 2023, a pilot project for a new type of physics lab was launched: The P+, which stands for Project-oriented Physics Lab for Undergraduate Students.

Update December 2023

In December 2023, P+ was rewarded with (financial) support through the Innovedum initiative. This allows us to hire students' assistants for supervising the next generation of P+ participants in FS 2024, as well as to start a small workshop where setups for the experiments can be built.

Abstract

The P+ offers a project-based alternative to the conventional physics lab course P2 for motivated and interested students, in which they can plan, carry out, and evaluate their own physics experiments. The explorative learning in small groups promotes additional competencies in the areas of interdisciplinary thinking, project management, teamwork, and critical assessment of one's own projects.

What does that mean?

• In the P+ you will complete 6 experiments in groups of 6, which you are largely free to design. You will be assigned a highly motivated HTA who will guide you and your group throughout the whole semester. Additionally, an experienced TA oversees several groups simultaneously.
• You will have a collection of experiment ideas at your disposal, and you can also extend or modify existing experiments. In addition, once a semester you are allowed to develop and conduct your own completely new and slightly crazy experiment.
• Two weeks are allotted for each experiment. In the first week, you will discuss your ideas in your group and together with your TA. Then you prepare the physical principles and plan the setups and measurements. In the second week, you will conduct the experiment. You will find that developing together, solving problems, and answering your own questions has a very high learning effect, and is also great fun!
• In order to adapt the workload, which is significantly higher for the preparation than in the traditional experiments, the number of experiments is reduced to 6 and additionally only one report has to be handed in per experiment and group, which two group members prepare together. This means you only write a report 2x per semester instead of 8x.

Introductory event and slides

An introductory event will be held on Monday, 4th of December at 6pm in HCI J4. We will send out a mail to all students of P1 in the second half of November. The slides of the event are linked here.

Registration for P+ in FS 2024

If you are interested in participating in P+ instead of P2 in the spring semester 2024, please send a mail. Ideally, you apply already in a team of 2, because we will raffle groups of 2 if there are more applications than available places in P+. Registration deadline is Friday, 15th of Dec 2023. However, if you want to apply without a partner, that is okay as well. We will combine single students to pairs of two.

Who is responsible for P+?

The P+ is hosted within the framework of P2. The main responsible persons are Andreas Eggenberger and Daniela Rupp. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

Wiki for P+

We are in the process of setting up a wiki with as many information about P+ as possible. The idea is to have a collection of knowledge, experiments, reports and tips and tricks "from students, for students". Here is the link to the wiki.

More Information about the past pilot project in FS 2023

The slides for last year's introductory meeting (from Dec 2022) can be found here. Please note that some information is not valid anymore since we introduced some changes. However, most of the structure still applies.

Final presentation of the groups