European Physical Society
PHYSICS EDUCATION DIVISION
Report Pre-University Section 2001
1. European conference on science education at the primary level:
Note was taken of the outcome of the Physics on Stage festival held at CERN in September 2000
and it was agreed that a European conference on science education at the primary level should
be held during 2002. We were lucky to have Rosemary Feasy in the meeting. She had chaired the
Working Group on Science Education at the Primary Level at Physics on Stage. She agreed to be
the Chairman of the Planning Committee for such a conference and promised to produce a paper
for consideration by the Committee.
The planning has not yet been very active, due to certain other initiatives, e.g., the one taken
by the French Physical Society for organising a seminar on teacher training in Les Houches.
2. European conference on physics teacher training
It was agreed that a conference on teacher training should be held in 2003 and that it should
be concerned with both pre-service training and in-service training. The planning for this
conference has so far been the task of Brenda Jennison who has plans to invite several people
for discussions in Cambridge early next year. A detailed suggestion for the structure of the
conference has recently been written by John Lewis. We hope that the planning can be made in
conjunction with the University Section.
3. A survey of physics education in European schools
The need for a EUPEN-style survey of physics education throughout European schools was
recognised at the board meeting in February. It was also noted that Malvern College was
willing to provide the necessary accommodation for the project and that T.D.R. Hickson would
be willing to direct this survey. He was asked to produce a plan for the project in the hope
that the necessary work could begin in 2003 and the funding for the project, possibly from
the EU Commission, could be obtained.
4. Continuing support for biographical posters
Warm approval was given to the series of posters already produced. A sample of the posters
has been made available through the Internet. Paper copies of the posters have been
distributed to each national society within EPS. A further step would be to have the posters
translated into different languages. After that they should be made available for schools on
the Internet or on a CD-ROM.
5. Posters on the relevance of physics to society
In addition to the biographical posters discussed above it was agreed that by producing a
different series of posters one could hope to promote better public understanding of
physics and its relevance to society. Whereas the biographies would primarily be aimed at
12-14 years olds, the further posters should be aimed at 16-18 year old students, i.e., the
pupils of the senior secondary schools, and adults. One would hope that the national societies
would be willing to produce posters on themes such as physics and the environment, physics
and wealth creation, physics and sport, physics and music, etc. It was noted that the
Institute of Physics was considering whether it might accept responsibility for a series
on the theme physics and medicine. However, in the first instance they hoped to produce
three sample posters.
6. Teacher exchange scheme
The teacher exchange scheme initiated some years ago by Alf Oelme should be given further publicity.
It was accepted that it would be more easily accessible to teachers if it were a one-to-one
interchange rather than two teachers from one school changing with two teachers from another school.
The value of such short one-week exchanges was rated very high by the board from the experience
already obtained in the pilot case conducted between Sweden and the UK.
7. Physics education website
During 2001 details about the new Division have been included in a physics education website,
edited by Eddy Lingeman in the Netherlands. The address is the following:
www.nikhef.nl/~ed/EDUCATION/vwo.html
The website now contains the minutes of our first board meeting and a link to the Association
for Science Education in the UK. More links will be included as well as a list of the
Presidential Representatives who have been chosen to represent their national societies
in educational matters.
8. The International Young Physicists Tournament
EPS (through our Section) has continued to support the International Young Physicists'
Tournament, IYPT. Since 1998 Gunnar Tibell is the President of the International Committee
of the tournament. In 2001 the competition was organised in Finland, at Espoo just outside
the capital. Next year's tournament will be held in Odessa, Ukraine.
9. Trends in Physics in Budapest 2002
In discussions with the University Section suggestions have been made for educational contributions
to the EPS general conference,
Trends in Physics, in Budapest next year. As plenary speaker
Frank Close, UK, has been approached and, for contacts between university and school,
Erik Johansson, Sweden, who was recently awarded an EPS prize for his activities in this
area, has been suggested to be invited to a parallel session.
10. Presidential Representatives
After the Malvern seminar efforts were made to have the National Society Presidents appoint
representatives for the Division on Education, one for each Section. Most Presidents have
now done so, and lists of their names have been forwarded to the EPS Secretariat in Mulhouse.
There has been some contact with these persons, especially with those who have given their e-mail
addresses (21 out of 37 possible). The EPS didactics questionnaire, produced by Michael
Völlmer was distributed in this way, and a few responses have been obtained.
11. Membership of the Section
During the EPS Council meeting in Mulhouse in March of this year we obtained lists of EPS
members who have registered to become members of the Sections of our Division. So far these
lists were considered to be preliminary, and no contacts have been taken during this year.
Communication with these members would probably be through e-mail. It was accepted that in
years ahead it would be necessary for the membership of the Division to elect members of the
Section boards and Section chairpersons. A programme for this should be decided with the
Executive Committee of EPS.
12. Concluding remarks
In conclusion it should be mentioned that frequent contacts have been taken with the Chairmen
of the Division and the University Section. The Division board met in Köln at the EUPEN
General Forum in September. I hope that we can arrange a meeting of our Section board in
conjunction with the Physics on Stage event in the beginning of April 2002.
Uppsala 2001-12-19
Gunnar Tibell, Chairman Pre-university Section