Supercomet – Superconductivity made easy

This presentation aims to give an overview of the development activities carried out in the SUPERCOMET (2001-2004) and SUPERCOMET 2 (2004-2007) pilot projects funded by the Leonardo da Vinci programme of the European Union. We will also present the planned MOSEM project (2007-2009); Minds-On experimental equipment kits in Superconductivity and Electromagnetism for the continuing vocational training of upper secondary school physics teachers. Examples will be given of the printed, electronic and hands-on materials that are currently being developed and tested in an iterative fashion by the ongoing Superconductivity Multimedia Educational Tool, phase 2 (SUPERCOMET 2) project. The teacher seminar, teacher guide and electronic learning modules developed by the previous SUPERCOMET project (2001-2004) are translated to 10 new languages, adapted to local curricula in a total of 14 European countries, and trialled in these countries with participating upper secondary schools. Superconductivity is a branch of contemporary physics with a constant flux of new discoveries and applications, as with nanotechnology, astronomy and biophysics. Pupils aged 10-15 do not see a difference between the dust layers upon 100 year old textbooks in modern physics and 400 year old textbooks in mechanics. In order to motivate pupils for the necessity of understanding Newton and Einstein we aim to show that the textbooks in physics are still being revised and extended every day.