Innovative Team-Teaching for Physics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovative Team-Teaching for Physics

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for Higher Education iTHEPHY has involved universities and research institutes from Italy, Germany, and France, with long-lasting relations that have been reinforced thanks to the project. The Consortium included: Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna (UNIBO) Bologna, Italy; Unversite Clermont Auvergne (UCA), Clermont-Ferrand, Franch; Tecnische Univeristat Dortmund (TUD), Dortmund, Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique and Institute National de physique nucleaire et de physique de particules (CNRS/IN2P3), France; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron Laboratory (DESY), Hamburg, Germany. A crucial role in supporting the project Summer Schools organization and implementation has been played by the Associated Partner Institut d’Etudes Scientifiques De Cargese (IESC), located in Cargese, Corsica, France. The project aimed at building a strategic partnership to promote an innovative educational environment and exchange of good practices in the field of higher education. The project consists of developing e-learning and blended learning methodologies and tools for teaching particle physics to students attending the second year of the master’s degree, making them work together in real research projects supervised by international teachers and researchers belonging to the iTHEPHY Consortium. The innovative educational approach applied promotes internationalization, team-work skills enhancement, and contributes to boosting mobility worldwide. The project outputs can be summarized as follows:
IO1. Moodle platform for Physics, based on the open-source Moodle framework and its plugins. It has been designed and successfully implemented to support the DPA- and Project-Based teaching and learning methodologies. The web-based platform has also supported the team during the project integrating a video web-conference plug-in, a chat room, a shared storage area for files, a scheduler/agenda for planning meetings between teachers and students, and a project management tool for an efficient implementation of projects, able to assign sub-tasks and tracking their progress;
IO2. A full set of guided exercises with full solutions also available on the e-learning platform; Physics disciplines taught in master courses need intensive practice with exercises and problems (EPs) in order to well internalize the advanced concepts, rather than passively reading, memorizing, or listening lectures. ITHEPHY successfully implemented dynamic guided problems and solutions for a Deep Learning in Physics
IO3. A Methodology handbook describing the implementation methodology of the project for future replications.
Educating-through-research is the core teaching, and learning feature of the iTHEPHY project usually, named by the Consortium the Tandem-Project (TP). This innovative educational methodology was implemented in three academic years, 2018/2019, 2019/2020, and 2020/2021. About 40 students, enrolled in the second year of the master’s degree in physics from the three partner universities were engaged to be part of TPs. They have been combined to form seven cross-national teams (made of two or three students and two or three international supervisors). International research projects based on HEP research have been assigned to each group. Students had the possibilities to present their results during the three editions of the Summer School, in 2018, 2019 held in Cargese, and in 2020 held online due to the COVID emergency. The project-based learning and teaching activities have been supported by the project’s outputs, i.e. advanced collaborative tools, integrated into a customized Moodle platform built with open-source software and guided exercises made available on the platform. In conclusion, the iTHEPHY project has implemented and proposes an innovative and unconventional approach to learning and teaching based on educating-through-research activities supported by ICT tools. This approach is complementary to frontal lectures and promotes the internationalization of master’s degrees in and outside Europe.
It is worth to underline that at least two achievements exceeding the initial expectations were obtained by ITHEPHY. The first consists of the institutionalization of Summer School as an official activity, approved by the Physics Department Committee and by the ViceRector for Teaching and Education of the UNIBO, delivering 6 ECTS credits to all the attendants, for the activities of the tandem-project. Second UNIBO, UCA, and TUD signed an agreement to set up an International Master’s degree in Particle Physics (IMAPP). IMAPP is a joint degree program implemented by the 3 HEIs, integrating the tandem-project and Summer School activities (and hence the iTHEPHY’s outputs) in the degree program, with 6 compulsory ECTS. iTHEPHY’s research institutions will host students for their internship in preparation for the final thesis.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 364696 Eur

Project Coordinator

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA & Country: IT

Project Partners

• STIFTUNG DEUTSCHES ELEKTRONEN-SYNCHROTRON DESY
• ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI FISICA NUCLEARE
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DORTMUND
• UNIVERSITE CLERMONT AUVERGNE
• CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS