Abstract:

Since its foundation in spring 2009 the Erlangen Student Research Centre (ESFZ) for Bavaria (http://www.esfz.physik.uni-erlangen.de) offers under the motto 'Fun and joy with researching and ruminating' special support for students who are interested in science and technology. Unlike many other advancement initiatives, the ESFZ fully concentrates on the initiative and creativity of its participants: Students from the age of 14 attend a one-week science camp in Erlangen, and during this week they carry out projects they have thought up themselves. These projects deal with topics in physics, mathematics, computer science, engineering and experiments in other natural sciences like biology and chemistry with an overlap to physics.

Erlangen University provides the premises and the equipment for this 'project work experience' for the ESFZ, which is a form of practical training for students of physics that is unique in Germany. On top of the excellent facilities regarding appliances and methods, former students of the project work experience act as tutors, motivating the activities of the students and supporting them competently. Furthermore, where this is requested by the students, professors and scientists of the university provide subject-specific support.

The ideas for research come from the students. While some of them arrive at the science camp with their project ideas already prepared in their minds, others use the opportunity of joining up with fellow students at the science camp and start discussing there and then what subject they would like to delve into. There are 'lone wolves', as well as groups of up to four students working together. Some of the projects are completed within the week, but many others take longer and are continued at home, or the students may indeed come back to the next science camp or in between camps. Many students intend taking part in competitions like 'Jugend forscht' with their work.

Since February 2012 in addition to the Science camps we offer together with the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics (ECAP), which is a member of Netzwerk Teilchenwelt (http://www.teilchenwelt.de), so-called Cosmic research weeks to students which are at least 16 years old. The Netzwerk Teilchenwelt provides detector panels and electronics for the detection of cosmic particles (scintillation counter experiment) which are prepared for the usage by students. The students learn how to measure cosmic radiation with these detectors and perform measurements with configurations based on their own ideas. For example in the first two Cosmic research weeks they measured the angular dependency and the speed of muon particles respectively. The participants discuss with professors and scientists about their ideas how to analyze the measured data. Additionally the students investigate cosmic radiation with a diffusion chamber. The week is rounded down by scientific talks about astroparticle physics.

As the Science camps and the Cosmic research weeks are held at the same time and rooms next door the participants of both have close contact to each other and exchange their experiences. Some participants of the Science camps have been motivated to take part at a Cosmic research week in future and vice versa.

In this contribution, we will introduce the Science camps and the Cosmic research camps in detail; we will report about the experiences of the last three years of the Erlangen Student Research Centre (ESFZ).

Keywords:

Student research centre, science camp, own ideas, creativity, cosmic research week, cosmic radiation, esfz.