21062009

1
Modern ways in communicating physics H.
Oberhummer, Vienna University of Technology,
Austria
Scientists at work
Boy, 13 yrs, Norway
Girl, 14 yrs, UK (from SAS, Science And
Scientists, Sjøberg 2002)
2
Motivation for physics
Cultural reasons Physics is part of our
cultural heritage it contributes to fundamental
questions like structure of matter, birth and
fate of the universe, etc. Scientific
knowledge and rational thinking is an antidote to
fears and their pseudo-solutions esotericism,
astrology, etc.

• Socio-political reasons
• In our democratic societies the citizens
  attitude is of profound importance in adopting or
  rejecting new technologies and reacting
  reasonably to accidents. This requires science
  literacy of the public.

Economic reasons  Physics is relevant for
research in life sciences, medicine, chemistry,
climate change, energy sources and storage,
material science, IT, transport, health,
environment, etc.  Scientific outreach is
required to raise interest and vocations for
technical professions required by tomorrows
society

3
Falling interest in physics

• No based on the interest for popular science in
  books and magazines and other media (TV, movies),
  surveys (Eurobarometer), visits to science
  centres, etc.
• Yes when choice of schools subjects and studies
  is the measure for interests
• Large variations between different areas of ST
  (Life sciences have less problems than physics!)
• Conclusion The interest and motivation for
  physics is lost mainly during secondary and
  tertiary education

4
Challenges for outreach of physics

• Traditionally physicists have often locked
  themselves up in a cage and have an outdated
  perception of public outreach. They often refuse
  to communicate with the public
• They wont understand anyway!.
• Often scientists forget the most relevant
  statements for public outreach
• Facts still remain facts when they are told
  interestingly!

5
The New Media and Physics

• Communication and public outreach has radically
  changed with the emergence of the New Media
  (Multimedia, Internet). Some academics contrary
  to the younger generation are not willing to
  study and engage themselves in these new
  developments.
• Physicists are often experts in computer
  techniques (WWW was invented at CERN!), but are
  ignorant in the didactical, social and economic
  aspects of Internet communication.
• Example websites of physics
• Missing target group definition, lack of
  marketing research, no dissemination, inadequate
  maintenance,

6
Goals of New Media in Physics Outreach

• To make physics more accessible to students and
  people of all ages and to counteract its current
  negative image by developing innovative
  multimedia and Internet websites aimed at all
  ages.
• To develop live interactive courses with
  unconven-tional topical organisation.

7
Advantages of the New Media

• The New Media (Mulimedia and Internet) are
  enjoyed and used by the young generation all over
  the world. Therefore it is the best method to
  tell pupils and students about the fascination of
  physics.
• The Internet has a previously unknown flexibility
  and dynamics. One can update contents easily and
  immediately contrary to most other mass media.
• New Media and especially the Internet allows the
  widest possible dissemination. With the Internet
  millions of people can be reached.

8
Felicitous websites

• There exist many examples for high-quality
  outreach and educational websites in physics
  like
• http//particleadventure.org
• Particle Adventure, the fundamentals of matter
  and forces
• In English, Chinese, German, Spanish, French,
  Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese,
  Slovenian, Finnish
• http//www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/
• Physics 2000, an interactive journey through
  modern physics
• In English, Spanish and German
• http//www.physicscentral.com
• Communication of the excitement and importance of
  physics to everyone

9
An exampleThe web-based communication system
http//www.nupex.net
Objectives Creation of a web-based science
communication system (webSCS) communicating
nuclear science and its applications to teachers
and their pubils High quality web-based
one-stop shop for contents in nuclear science and
applications in at least 5 European languages
Primary target group are schools Teachers as
science communicators and their pupils
Innovative features, e-didactics and role of
teacher communities essential Total budget 379
kEuro Funding from the EU 302 kEuro, own
resources 77 kEuro 11 involved institutions 2
companies, 4 research institutions, 3
universities and 2 outreach institutions from A,
B, D, I, EL, HU, MT, PL, UK Duration of
project 24 months Start of NUPEX-project 1.
January 2003
10
The planned project Cinema and Science (CISCI)
CISCI combines the most popular media among the
young generation, namely popular movies and the
Internet. The basic idea of CISCI is to set up a
web-based platform containing scientifically
relevant and interesting videoclips about 1-3
minutes long from existing popular (Examples
Space Odyssey, Deep Impact, Star Wars, Outbreak,
Matrix, etc.) and documenatry movies along with
corresponding scientific analyses and
explanations. The primary target groups are
high-school teachers and their pupils, a
secondary target group is the general public.

• The goals of CISCI are as follows
• To raise the interest and attractiveness of
  science in the young generation
• To take popular movies as a vehicle to present
  scientific concepts and laws
• To help pupils to learn to distinguish between
  pseudo-sciences presented in films and scientific
  laws and ideas
• To motivate pupils to think critically about
  science information presented in movies
• To help pupils to learn about the borderline
  between verified and untested science

11
Conclusion

• If physics wants to sustain and have a long-time
  bright future the community has to make every
  effort to change public opinion in its favour.
  Changing the entrenched public opinion against
  physics and its applications is a long, hard,
  expensive and sometimes demoralising task.

• The advantages of the New Media (Internet,
  multimedia, popular movies, etc.) are their
  attractiveness especially for the young
  generation, their flexibility and dynamics as
  well as their wide dissemination possibilities.
  Therefore it is essential to include and exploit
  them in the outreach and popularising efforts of
  physics.

12
Information and Studies
TIMSS (continues, with T for Trends)
http//timss.bc.edu/ OECD's PISA (continues for
at least 10 years, focus on science in 2006)
http//www.pisa.oecd.org/ Science And Scientists
(SAS-study) http//folk.uio.no/sveinsj/SASweb.htm
Eurobarometer 55.2 "Europeans, Science And
Technology http//europa.eu.int/comm/dg10/epo/eb
.html and Candidate countries Eurobarometer
(CCEB) 2003 http//europa.eu.int/comm/public_opin
ion/ UNESCO World Education Report and
statistics http//www.unesco.org/ OECD
Education at Glance http//www.oecd.org/ UNDPs
Human Development Reports http//www.undp.org/