Join the webconference on Zoom.

The event is aimed at the CERN community and CERN Alumni, therefore physical attendance will require having a valid CERN access card. 

CERN Alumni should use this form to request CERN access cards.

Marilena Streit-Bianchi, Marisa Michelini, Walter Bonivento, Matteo Tuveri will present their new book at the CERN Library:

The book:

·         Analyses the impact of modern physics on culture and physics education.

·         Explores digital challenges and innovative approaches in physics and STEM teaching.

·         Outlines the importance of transdisciplinary, creative thinking, and multiculturality in education.

New Challenges and Opportunities in Physics Education is invaluable for teachers and students in high school and junior college who struggle to understand the principles of modern physics and incorporate scientific methods in their lessons. It provides interactive and multidisciplinary approaches that will help prepare present and future generations to face the technological and social challenges they will face. Rather than using a unidirectional didactic approach, the authors - scientists, philosophers, communication experts, science historians and science education innovators - divide the book into two parts; the first part, “Communicating Contemporary Physics”, examines how new physics developments affect modern culture, while the second part, “Digital Challenges for Physics Learning”, covers physics education research using ICT, plus the experiences of classroom teachers and a range of ideas and projects to innovate physics and STEM teaching.

The event will be chaired by Paola Catapano, and followed by a Q&A and signing sessions. The book is available from the CERN Library & Bookshop. 

About the speakers: 

Steven Goldfarb is a French/American particle physicist working for the University of Melbourne on the ATLAS Experiment at CERN. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Steve has served as ATLAS Muon Software Coordinator, Education & Outreach Coordinator, and chair of the International Particle Physics Outreach Group. He currently coordinates several U.S. and Ukrainian undergraduate research programs at CERN, is an ATLAS Diversity and Inclusion Contact, and serves on the US-LHC Users Association Executive Committee. Steve frequently gives public talks on science, discovery and international collaboration, co-wrote a popular TED Ed video “The basics of the Higgs boson” and fronts the well-known Canettes Blue Band.

Julia Woithe is a physics educator, communicator and education researcher who thrives on applying her creative problem-solving skills to challenges in modern science education. Between 2014 and 2020, she developed and managed S'Cool LAB, CERN's hands-on particle physics learning laboratory for high-school students. For her PhD thesis, she studied the cognitive and affective effects of this science outreach lab in cooperation with the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany and the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Currently, she works as a postdoctoral staff scientist at CERN and is in charge of the education labs at CERN Science Gateway.

Marilena Streit-Bianchi received a doctorate in Biological Sciences from the University of Rome and joined CERN in 1969. She has been a pioneer in the study of high-energy particles produced by accelerators for cancer treatment. She has held managerial positions on safety training and technology transfer, has been a senior honorary staff member at CERN and is actively engaged in multi-disciplinarity and education. She is the vice president of the international association ARSCIENCIA. She has been co-editor of the books “Mare Plasticum-The Plastic Sea -Combatting Plastic Pollution Through Science and Art” Springer 2020, “Advances in Cosmology” Springer nature 2022 and “Big Science Innovations and Societal Contribution” by Oxford University Press 2024.

Jari Lavonen is a Professor of Physics and Chemistry Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has been working as a director of the National Teacher Education Forum and Chair of the Finnish Matriculation Examination Board. He is a member of Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Distinguished visiting professor at the University of Johannesburg and Visiting professor at the University of Tartu. He has been researching science and teacher education for the last 34 years. His publications include 161 refereed scientific papers in journals and books and 185 books for science teachers and science education. 

Walter Bonivento, experimental physicist in astroparticles and fundamental physics is Scientific Associate at CERN working at present for the SHIP-charm project. He is Senior INFN Researcher, coordinator of Cagliari INFN Unit and Scientific Director of the Aria project for the distillation of argon for the research of dark matter carried out at LNGS. Lecturer at the Physics Department of the University of Cagliari and INFN Manager of the dissemination project on Dark Matter DARK. Project leader and coordinator of Gravitas together with Matteo Tuveri and Viviana Fanti, physics-philosophical chats held from December 2021 - April 2022.