Falling Walls Falling Walls Science Summit 2023

Breaking the Wall to Widely Available Data Acquisition in Science Education

Sebastian Staacks

Future Learning

The nominating institution RWTH Aachen on the breakthrough:

With the free and open source app phyphox many sensors (even present in old and cheap smartphones) become accessible for students and turns their smartphones in mobile physics labs. Phyphox offers tools and instructions from school to university level and from individual labs with household items during Covid19 lockdown to global experiments to determine Earth’s axial tilt. The app, downloaded over 1.5 million and translated in 17 languages, makes science education worldwide more attractive.

Tags: Citizen Science, Digitalisation, Education, Education Equity, Learn smart, Ed Tech, Citizen Science, Education for all

Sebastian Staacks

2nd Institute of Physics, RWTH Aachen

Sebastian Staacks is a physicist and the developer of phyphox at the RWTH Aachen University, where he received his PhD in solid state physics in 2014. As a scientific assistant (“Akademischer Rat”) he focuses on digitalization in science education. His work has been decorated with several prices, including the Ars Legendi faculty award (Stifterverband) and the Archimedes award (MNU). Except for service, he is a father of two children, a drummer and a developer for domestic automation contraptions.

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