Venue: FIAS

EXPLORE - EXPeriential Learning Opportunity through Research and Exchange - an innovative international teaching project at FIAS on Aug 22-26 2022

As part of a summer school, 13 students from Frankfurt's partner city Toronto and their 22 fellow students from Goethe University are meeting in person for the first time at FIAS Frankfurt. "It's nice to finally have everyone together. The students really put in a lot of effort and did some great research work," says the organiser of the summer school, Prof. Laura Sagunski from the Institute of Theoretical Physics. She realised the project together with Prof. Jürgen Schaffner-Bielich and her colleagues at York University in Canada.

Already in the winter semester, the young people worked in self-organised teams on very real physical data and questions related to the topic of dark matter. EXPLORE is based on the teaching format of "research-based learning". The aim is not only to provide students with specialist knowledge in physics, but also to give them a practical insight into modern international research work. 

On Monday, the EXPLORE Summer School was opened at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) on the Riedberg campus together with Mayor Dr. Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg: "It is of special importance to me that Frankfurt will be further strengthened as a research location. In times where scientific findings are being questioned, it is particularly important that researchers communicate beyond borders".

FIAS Fellow Prof. Luciano Rezzolla gave a lecture on the formation of the first images of black holes. "It's great to see how motivated young scientists are," he says.

A week full of exciting workshops and lectures awaits the students. There will also be plenty of sporting and cultural activities on offer, such as a stand-up paddling on the Main and a city tour of Frankfurt.