Jonas Strandberg

Education and Outreach

Education and Outreach 1 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Physics and Math in High School Jonas Strandberg

• A high school education is divided into courses totalling 2500 course points. - 750+ points core courses, 300 individual choices and 100 points project work. • The following courses are given in Physics at the high school level: - Physics 1: 150 points, obligatory for students in the natural sciences program. - Physics 2: 100 points, obligatory for students in the natural sciences program with a natural sciences specialisation. - Physics 3: 100 points, can be an individual choice (if given at school). • The following courses are given in Mathematics at the high school level: - Math 1: 100 points, core course. - Math 2: 100 points, core course. - Math 3: 100 points, core course. - Math 4: 100 points, obligatory for students in the natural sciences program with a natural sciences specialisation. - Math 5: 100 points, can be an individual choice (if given at school).

Education and Outreach 2 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. PISA study 2012 Jonas Strandberg

• In 2012 Sweden participated for the fifth time in the PISA study, testing skills in mathematics, reading ability and natural sciences. - The report summarising the results, released in 2013, showed that Sweden is the country with the fastest decline in student ability as measured in PISA. - This report created a small shockwave in Sweden, and since then improving the school system is one of the most debated political goals.

Reading

Math OECD Average OECD

Natural Sciences Percentage of Swedish students in each of the six levels defined in the PISA study, in 2003 and 2012

Education and Outreach 3 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Follow-up Studies Jonas Strandberg

• One suggested explanation for the • Another proposed explanation is low result has been the high usage that Swedish students are not of computers by Swedish kids (at motivated to do good since it does home, instead of doing homework). not count towards their grades.

Test Score Test ReportedEffort Average) (7.49OECD PaperTest Math Test Reading Digital Test Paper Reading Test Math Digital

• The reported effort can only explain a small part of the degradation. • Important that computer usage in • Decline in skills is the most schools fill a educational role. important factor for the results.

Education and Outreach 4 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. OECD Review of Swedish Schools Jonas Strandberg

• OECD conducted a large investigation on how to improve the results in the Swedish school system in view of the poor PISA results, with the resulting report released last year. Suggests actions to be taken to reverse the trend. - As late as this week there was an article from the minister of education in a major Swedish newspaper on actions taken following the recommendations. • Some of the conclusions: - Sweden has a relatively equitable school with good student- teacher relationships. - System not conductive to nurturing excellence in teaching. - Lack of capacity and clarity in roles at various levels. - Assessment and evaluation remains underdeveloped and lack coherence between schools.

National evaluation criteria show opposite trend

Education and Outreach 5 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Does society value teachers? Jonas Strandberg The teachers The themselvesquestion. this answering

• High answer here found to be very correlated with doing well in PISA test.

Education and Outreach 6 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Outreach in Sweden Jonas Strandberg

• At the university level, doing outreach and explaining our research at the popular science level is our best way of achieving multiple goals: - Inspiring students to pursue higher education in mathematics and/or natural sciences, and broaden the knowledge of physics for high school students. - Educating and stimulating the high school teachers. - Informing the decision makers of what we do and the impact it has on society. - Stimulating the strong interest in the general public regarding research at the energy frontier, to understand the smallest building blocks of nature and how the universe works. CERN itself is very widely known among the public now. • Outreach activities are mandatory for all university faculty in Sweden, and is also a mandatory requirement for obtaining a Ph.D. degree. - Despite that, there is no (or very little) dedicated funding allocated to outreach, and usually faculty has to take time to do outreach out of their research time. - Outreach activities internationally coordinated through IPPOG, which is right now discussing the MoU for defining it as a formal collaboration. Perhaps that can strengthen the need for dedicated funding for outreach inside the Swedish Research Council.

Education and Outreach 7 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. International Masterclasses Jonas Strandberg

• The international masterclasses is the flagship program of IPPOG. - More than ten thousand students participate all over the world each year. • In Sweden we give masterclasses in all cities with experimental high energy physics groups, Lund, Uppsala and Stockholm, and also in Gothenburg. • The masterclasses typically involve 30-50 students and their teachers, and has a full day of activities and lectures. - Video conference with CERN and other participating schools. • Ideas to improve the program: - Follow up and evaluate the impact of the program. - Extend the program for the teachers, so that the teachers can give some of the lectures.

Education and Outreach 8 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. CERN 60 Years - Tour Jonas Strandberg

• As part of the CERN 60 years celebration, we conducted a particle physics outreach tour to northern universities without experimental high energy physics groups. - One motivation was to inform engineering students about workEn opportunities resa genom at Luleå CERN, large interest but few students 15 oktober know about theseupptäckter job opportunities. och Sundsvall Umeå - The talk about job opportunities at CERN 13 oktober 16-17 oktober given by someone who was employed by CERN at the time.

under 60 år Uppsala 18 oktober Stockholm 20 oktober

CERN - SVERIGE

Education and Outreach 9 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Exhibition on Tour Jonas Strandberg

• Put it in places where many students pass, e.g. entrance to the cafeteria.

Education and Outreach 10 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Presentations for General Public Jonas Strandberg

• Usually we also gave two popular science talks in the evenings: - About discoveries at CERN over 60 years (explaining the physics). - About inventions at CERN (explaining the value to society).

Education and Outreach 11 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. The Second Tour Jonas Strandberg

• Last year the whole endeavour was repeated with a tour to western universities without experimental HEP groups. - Very positive feedback again from students and teachers, it is very appreciated that the exhibitions is coming to them and very little effort is needed from the hosting university. • We saw an increase in the number of applications to e.g. the technical student program at CERN after the tours.

Education and Outreach 12 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Meet a Physicist at CERN Jonas Strandberg

• Lund scientists have given seminars in Swedish, and sometimes English, to groups of 20-30 visitors regularly since 2007. - This fills an important need since the LHC and the experiments are inaccessible for a large portion of the year. The seminars interleaves slides with animations and question/discussion sessions, and last in total about two hours. - In a recent survey these seminars rated very highly (2nd) among the various activities high school students did at CERN. - Similarly, many of us are involved in giving tours and virtual visits for Swedish students.

Education and Outreach 13 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Other Exhibitions and Events Jonas Strandberg

• There are many other activities like annual exhibitions and meetings between the scientists in Sweden and the general public: - SciFest in Uppsala, targeted at all students not at the university. - The science, medicine and technology days in Lund, with high school students. About 130 students from ten schools over four days. The theme this year is “Particle physics and cosmology - How do they fit together?”. - The cultural night in Lund, lots of visitors from the general public. - “Physics in central park” (Fysik in Kungsträdgården) in Stockholm, bi-annual exhibition on physics with lots of visitors from the general public.

• Plus many miscellaneous activities that are not occurring periodically: - Popular science talks and articles, interaction with media, supervision of high school projects, etc.

Education and Outreach 14 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. The cosmic cocktail Jonas Strandberg

• Mixed with three unknown ingredients in the proportions: - 70% (dark energy), 25% (dark matter), 5% (ordinary matter). - Guess the ingredients, win a coffee with a scientist.

Education and Outreach 15 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Making ice-cream Jonas Strandberg

• Make ice-cream in 5 minutes with liquid nitrogen. • Kids get to eat the ice-cream when it is done! - Grown-ups get to taste it too, but considerably larger scepticism from them. �

Education and Outreach 16 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016. Conclusions Jonas Strandberg

• The math and natural science teaching in elementary school and high school is a topic of much debate following the results in the PISA study in 2012. • Several possible explanations have been proposed, none is the sole cause: - Lack of motivation for the students to do well in the test. - Students spend too much time in front of computers instead of homework. - Lack of status for the teachers and too much administrative burden for them. • The outreach program for high energy physics in Sweden is varied, with many annual exhibitions and a few miscellaneous initiatives. - Lack of dedicated funding for outreach activities, and university faculty have to do it on a best-effort basis in their “research time”. • While the amount of outreach activities is impressive, the lack of time usually does not allow for evaluation and assessment of impact of outreach. - Initiatives to strengthen assessment of impact has started at e.g. Stockholm U. - More effort could also be targeted directly at the high school teachers.

Education and Outreach 17 RECFA visit, May 20, 2016.