Berlin University Alliance

Researchers from the fields of physics, chemistry, didactics, and work studies are setting up an experimental laboratory as a teaching module for students. In this way, they can learn at an early stage how to play a mediating role between research and society. By carrying out independent interdisciplinary group work, they aim to develop new ideas for a target group-oriented presentation of scientific data and results with natural scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Technische Universität Berlin, among others. They will be collaborating with research institutions such as BESSY II, the electron storage ring at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, and BLIX, the application laboratory for innovative X-ray technologies, which is operated by Technische Universität Berlin together with the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics.

In cooperation with the Experimental Stage Project Berlin and linked to the maker movement, the teaching concept comprises sustainable methods such as 3D printing, Arduino programming or laser-cutting, and also includes artistic methods and concepts introduced through collaborations with UdK, Parallax Lab Berlin, and Hybrid Plattform Berlin. Knowledge exchange with artists for new presentation formats of student-based science communication – for example, through performance, multimedia work or installations – promises to generate new impetus to Berlin as an integrated research environment.