Uni Fakultäten Fk. V Physik Didaktik und Geschichte der Physik   

From the itinerant lecturers of the 18^th century to popularizing physics in the 21^st century - exploring the relationship between learning and entertainment

sponsored by Volkswagen Stiftung

Date: Monday, June 01 to Friday, June 06. 2003

Place: Pognana sul Lario (Lake Como), 11 km to Como (60 km to Milan)

Reason for choosing the designated locale:

Pognana is the birthplace of Giacomo Bianchi, one of the most famous "itinerant lecturers" of science of the 18th century. He was active in Austria, Germany and France, not only as a lecturer but also as a noted maker of scientific instruments. He seems to be the only one of this class of physicists of that time about whom we have substantial material, especially at Pognana, Vienna, and Paris. This material clearly shows that he established a - possibly - very typical "hybrid career", a combination of experimental physicist and teacher, of instrument maker and itinerant lecturer, which may throw new light on the efficient public dissemination of scientific knowledge in the 18th century. In Pognana today, the family name of Bianchi is still widely recognized and highly regarded. There are still vestiges of this significant family, including the house in which Bianchi was born. Pognana itself is conserved in its state of the 18th and 19th centuries. It can be regarded as a typical example of a small town where opportunities for mobility were available that the "nuova scienza", starting in the 17th century, afforded to many who were outside the recognized centers of culture. Here was to be found - maybe sometimes to a greater extent than in the big centers - not only practical interest and craftsmanship, but also unconventional thinking (that sometimes bordered on charlatanism). It is fitting that two brothers of Giacomo Bianchi became instrument makers, too. Otherwise, Pognana, an Italian place for the planned conference, can be seen as a symbol of the beginning of the new experimental physics of the second half of the 17th century. This is especially so in reference to the Accademia del Cimento in Florenz. It can be seen also as a symbol for the combination of science (mostly as playful technology) and entertainment within the Baroque period, from Latium to the Dukedom of Milan. However, it is also a symbol of the decline of this importance. The career of Bianchi found its high point, not in Italy but in Vienna and Paris (and for his two brothers in the Netherlands).

It is also significant for us that the only hotel in Pognana has made an offer for accommodation that is very generous. In addition, the hotel is only 11 km from Como where Alessandro Volta was born and worked as a young experimenter. Volta became a very famous professional physicist who played an important role in furthering the discipline as an experimentalist, especially in the study of electricity. Volta was also an accomplished popularizer of science. There is in Como a well equipped Volta-Museum that shall become part of our program. However, Como as a venue for the conference would be considerably more expensive.

Reason for the conference theme: Please refer to Appendix 1.

Beyond this, it is important to note that our theme is an outgrowth from three areas of research in the last three decades. We will try to bring these areas together for the first time in an interdisciplinary study, namely,

1. the discussion involving the social imbedding of the natural sciences from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
2. the growing realization of the importance of the role public understanding of science (PUS) plays in the ongoing dialogue between science and the modern world since 1945.
3. the extensive involvement of the didactics of the disciplines in the schools with formal as well as informal teaching, especially in the affective areas.

There are some important factors that one finds common to all the three research areas. In this conference we will emphasize - within the area of physics, as an example for all sciences - the concept of "entertainment". Entertainment plays a large role in our media-rich world in trying to disseminate scientific knowledge. This factor has not been discussed in-depth until now, and certainly never in an interdisciplinary way. Entertainment in history has been an important part in general for the common effect of science on society since the 17th century.

The goal of the conference is to have scientists (so far they are interested in PUS), science educators, teacher trainers, historians and science historians get together in an effort to deliniate and outline an approach how to define "entertainment" from a historic and modern point of view. We are also planning to publish the most important lectures in a special edition of the international Kluwer journal Science & Education, edited by Professor Michael Matthews. In addition, we will present selected articles pertaining to the conference on our Internet homepage (Deutsches Museum). Almost all participants shall give a lecture (with exception of the invited young researchers).

For further information please contact:

Prof. Dr. Falk Rieß
Physics Education/History and Philosophy of Science
Institute of Physics
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
Carl von Ossietzky Straße 9-11
D-26111 Oldenburg
Germany

or
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Teichmann
Deutsches Museum
Museumsinsel 1
80538 München
Germany

Organisation:

Deutsches Museum, München (Kerschensteiner Kolleg); Universität Oldenburg (Fakultät für Physik); Università di Pavia (Dipartimento di Fisica Alessandro Volta); Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze; Museo Nazionale di Tecnica Leonardo da Vinci, Milano (planned)

Language spoken at the conference: English.

Prospective Participants are:

* Michael Barth (Hohenhameln, Germany)
* Fabio Bevilacqua (Università di Pavia, Italy)
* Christine Blondel (Cité des Sciences et de l'industrie, Paris, France)
* Paolo Brenni (CNR, Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica, Firenze)
* Giorgio Dragoni (Università di Bologna, Italy)
* Wolfgang Bürger (universität Karlsruhe, Germany)
* Michael Eckert (Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany)
* Wolfgang Engels (Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany)
* Manfred Euler (Institut für die Pädagogik der Naturwissenschaften, Kiel, Germany)
* Lucio Fregonese (Università di Pavia, Italy)
* Peter Heering (Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany)
* Oliver Hochadel (Universität Wien, Austria)
* Grazia Ianniello (Università di Roma, Italy)
* Laszlo Kovacs (University of Szombathely, Hungary)
* Fritz Kubli (Zürich, Switzerland)
* Christine Lehmann (Paris)
* Otto Lührs (Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, Germany)
* Michael Lynn (Agnes-Scott-College, Decatur, U.S.A.)
* Michael Matthews (University of New South Wales, Sidney, Australia)
* Don Metz (University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
* Iwan Rhys Morus (Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland)
* Daniel Osewold (Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany)
* Daniel Raichvarg (Université de Bourgogne, France)
* Karin Reich (Universität Hamburg, Germany)
* John Rigden (University of Maryland, U.S.A.)
* Falk Rieß (Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany)
* Lissa Roberts (Universität Twente, Netherlands)
* Rajinder Singh (Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany)
* Klaus Staubermann (Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht, Netherlands)
* Arthur Stinner (University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
* Roger Stuewer (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, U.S.A)
* Jürgen Teichmann (Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany)
* Pasquale Tucci (Università di Milano, Milan, Italy)
* Marc-Dennis Weitze (Deutsches Museum, Munich)
* Roland Wittje (University of Trondheim, Norway)
* Stefan Wolff (Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany)
* Gudrun Wolfschmidt (Universität Hamburg, Germany)