Company Description

At CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. Using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, they study the basic constituents of matter - fundamental particles that are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives physicists clues about how particles interact and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. Find out more on https://home.cern.

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization.

Research Topic Description

CERN has an opening for a Doctoral Student post in the Teacher & Student Programmes (TSP) Section in the Education, Communication and Outreach (ECO) group in the International Relations (IR) sector.

Research Topic Introduction

Education research shows that visual illustrations are essential to communicating scientific ideas in the classroom (Carney & Levin, 2002; Cook, 2006). How to design such illustrations in a meaningful way that fosters students’ learning, however, can sometimes be a challenge. This is especially true in the case of particle physics, which features abstract concepts and deals with objects that are inaccessible to humans. Here, special care needs to be taken in how particles, particle systems, and transformation processes are represented to learners.

At CERN, the physics education research team has developed an online particle physics course for high-school students that tackles these challenges. Specifically, typographic representations of particles are used consistently throughout the course. This idea originates from particle physics itself, as letters are commonly used to denote particles in, for instance, Feynman diagrams. Within an educational setting, these typographic illustrations aim at visualising subatomic objects while avoiding triggering any misconceptions about their potential appearance. Therefore, instead of using spheres or any other misleading symbols, particles and particle systems are represented by using their respective letters. This approach has been empirically validated with high school students in the context of elementary particles (Wiener et al., 2017a; Wiener et al., 2017b) and molecules (Budimaier & Hopf, 2023; Budimaier & Hopf, 2024), and it is considered to be a well-suited and promising approach.

Research Focus

The research aim of this doctoral research project is to advance further the design-based research of typographic illustrations by iteratively developing them in different contexts, empirically validating them with high-school students, and investigating their usability in the classroom.

This project will allow the successful candidate to improve their skills in qualitative and quantitative physics education research and to further develop and expand CERN’s particle physics course for high-school students. In addition, the successful candidate will be actively involved in the management and delivery of CERN’s national and international teacher programmes.

References 

1. Budimaier, F., & Hopf, M. (2023). Development of a new teaching-learning sequence on the particulate nature of matter using crystal structures. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 19(2), 020169. 
2. Budimaier, F., & Hopf, M. (2024). Evaluation of a new teaching-learning sequence on the particulate nature of matter using crystal structures. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 20(2), 020104.
3. Carney, R. N., & Levin, J. R. (2002). Pictorial illustrations still improve students' learning from text. Educational psychology review, 14, 5-26.
4. Cook, M. P. (2006). Visual representations in science education: The influence of prior knowledge and cognitive load theory on instructional design principles. Science education, 90(6), 1073-1091.
5. Wiener, J., Schmeling, S. M., & Hopf, M. (2017a). Introducing 12-year-olds to elementary particles. Physics Education, 52(4), 044001.
6. Wiener, J., Schmeling, S. M., & Hopf, M. (2017b). An alternative proposal for the graphical representation of anti-color charge. The Physics Teacher, 55(8), 472-474.

Apply now! … by March 3^rd, 2025

All information about CERN’s Doctoral Student Programme can be found here:
https://jobs.smartrecruiters.com/CERN/744000030887701-doctoral-student-programme-2025-2 

Please mention the code “IR-ECO-TSP-Typographic-Illustrations” in your application.