During recent years the consensus has been reached about the necessity to improve the physics curriculum as well as the method of teaching physics, in order to make physics more appealing to young people and students. In order to reach this goal it is also necessary to make the corresponding changes and improvements in the surrounding where education is being realized. The school buildings are the nearest surroundings.
Architecture of primary and secondary schools, regardless of geographical, political or social order, is usually a low store building spread on a lot with indoor and outdoor play areas. It has not been a practice to build educational aids and devices into the school building. The cause of this state of affairs is not clear, especially if one has in mind that architecture has been always closely connected with human knowledge about nature and natural phenomena.
At the First preparatory Conference for the World Year of Physics 2005 (Graz Conference) (http://www.wyp2005.at/index.html) we proposed to start a multidisciplinary research having the aim to incorporate physics into school building. Together with arguments supporting this proposal [1] we gave many examples how this could be realized [1, 2]. The easiest and most effective way is to map nature on, in and around the school building. For example, optical and acoustical phenomena offer the wealth of possibilities. Creating environment that is interactive and dynamic would contribute to develop the curiosity in children and students to understand and learn about natural phenomena.
The idea to incorporate educational aids and devices into the school architecture has been further elaborated and presented at conferences [3], [4] and educational [5] and architectural journals [6]. Our final aim is to implement this idea. To reach this goal the International project was initiated [7]. Teachers, professors, scientists, architects, state educational legislatures are invited to participate in this project.
Interested educators, scientists, architects and educational legislatures should contact
Dr. Mirjana Bozic
11080
References
1. M. Bozic, S. Nikolic and D. Pantelic, School on experiments in Physics, WYP2005 First Preparatory Conference, Graz, Austria, July 2003.
2. M. Bozic, S. Nikolic and D. Pantelic, School on experiments in Physics, (ppt presentation), WYP2005 First Preparatory Conference, Graz, Austria, July 2003.
3. M. Bozic, D. Pantelic and
4. M. Bozic, D. Pantelic and S. Nikolic, Physics in school architecture - PHYSARCH, (ppt presentation), WYP2005 Second Preparatory Conference, Montreal, Canada, March 2004.
5. Mirjana Božic, Leposava Vuskovic, Dejan Pantelic, Slavica Nikolic and Vigor Majic, School Architecture and Physics Education, The Physics Teacher, Vol. 43, 2005
6. S. Nikolic i D.
Pantelic, Fizika u školskoj arhitekturi, AG Magazin Februar 2005.
7. M. Bozic, Physics in
School Architecture, World Year of Physics 2005 in Serbia and Montenegro (ppt presentation), European Meeting for the World Year
of Physics, 15-16 October 2004,