This time, the certificate came in the mail, due to Corona's circumstances: After 2016, the Kaiserslautern physics professor Artur Widera has now once again received the 10,000 euro state teaching award. This makes him one of a total of ten university lecturers who have been honored this year by the State Ministry of Education, Science, Further Education and Culture (MBWWK) for their individual and outstanding teaching performance.
"Preparing physical facts for teaching in such a way that students can not only understand them, but are also able to apply the acquired knowledge in the best possible way in the future - that is a subject close to my heart," says the quantum physicist. "Not least because of this, I am very pleased about the repeated award".
Already several months Widera had previously been nominated for the teaching award by the Physics Department of the TUK. For evaluation evaluated two of his lectures by means of a questionnaire, in which the students were given comprehensive feedback on quality of the respective course. The results, which were achieved in the subject group mathematics and natural sciences spoke for the Kaiserslautern, the university evaluation network Southwest and independently evaluated.
The quantum physicist and his research group are investigating experimentally study quantum physical phenomena on single atoms, ultracold gases and solid state systems. He would like to present the physical basics of these phenomena to young scientists in his teaching. mediate. To this end, Widera has also been using digital media for years - for example with the help of a digital voting tools. "With the software, I query lecture contents and can thus draw conclusions about what the students have understood well or notice where there are still gaps in their knowledge are. Since the surveys are anonymous, students are happy to participate. Decisive for me is not the query technique itself, but that I reflect much more critically on how and with which methods I can best reach the students".
In general, the department didactically outstandingly positioned. Augmented Reality is used, for example, in laboratory courses to make theoretical models more tangible. In addition, a chair for didactics researches by means of eye-tracking technology is used to monitor human reading and learning behavior, for example by using physical Problems are presented in different representations, for example as diagrams or formulas become.
"At the end of the day we want to show our students the way to a successful Pave the way for a career in research. The physics department in Kaiserslautern conducts top-level research at international visible level with several collaborative research centers of the German Research Foundation. Only one excellent teaching at the highest level allows our students in this top group to successfully or in research and development of novel technologies in international groups to push forward. We also train future teachers who will later succeed in to inspire tomorrow's students for the natural sciences," sums up Widera. "To this end, the TU Kaiserslautern optimal conditions, such as an extraordinarily good care relationship and a modern Equipment. As teachers, we also have all the possibilities to use not only the usual experimental equipment but also new to use media or to take alternative paths".
The 10,000 euros that Widera has donated for the Rhineland-Palatinate teaching prize, the research of his research group will benefit from the come.
For questions contact:
Prof. Dr. Artur Widera
Department of Physics at TU Kaiserslautern
Tel.: 0631 205-4130
E-Mail: widera(at)physik.uni-kl.de
PAVING THE WAY FOR EXCELLENT TEACHING AND RESEARCH: PROF. WIDERA AWARDED WITH THE TEACHING AWARD RHINELAND-PALATINATE
