In the framework of the International Staff Week, members of different universities across the world had the opportunity to spend an afternoon at our faculty on Limpertsberg campus, on 4 April 2019. The International Relations Office organised this second edition with the valuable support of David Kieffer, from the Scienteens Lab. All participants were invited to take part in an interactive hands-on workshop with the topic: smartphones in physics, a good way to teach?
Armed with their mobile phone, the attendees (from Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Russia, Senegal and Israel) really enjoyed exploring the opportunities and challenges of using smartphones as a mean of teaching physics. With the application called “Phyphox”, they used the different sensors of their phone in order to try some entertaining experiments in physics, such as measuring the audio amplitude of a free fall by popping a balloon, measuring the speed of an elevator, detecting the Doppler effect, etc.
“Your smartphone is a real mobile lab. It allows you, thanks to all its sensors and the Phyphox application, to try many experiments very easily”, explains David Kieffer, Project support staff member of the Scienteens Lab. “The main objective of this activity was to illustrate the way we are offering such workshops designed to spark the interest in science in Luxembourg.”
The purpose of the International Staff Week is to discuss ongoing collaborations, to share knowledge and exchange best practices between teaching, administrative and other staff members of different universities across the world, but also to provide opportunities for networking.
The third edition will take place again next year at the University of Luxembourg.