phyphox – The Conference – Program

In the UK only 7% of students pursue a physics qualification at upper secondary level (16 – 18-year-olds), and only 0.7% study physics at university, and of those a disproportionate number come from the most economically affluent parts of society. Those from the least affluent parts of society are least likely to possess significant Science Capital, which not only impacts their participation in science but also their attitudes towards science. At the same time, it is known that whilst trust in science is generally high, there are significant elements of society who do not trust science and display science denialism in important areas including climate change. In this talk it will be suggested that improving Science Capital, the sum of a person’s science-related resources, through the use of Phyphox, may have an impact on developing engagement in science and building trust, necessary features for citizenship in modern society. An opportunity exists to harness the potential of Phyphox to engage a broader audience, through development of fun and relevant activities, making physics a familiar and integral part of lives.

Phyphox has opened new opportunities for experimental physics education. In this contribution, we present the redesign of the introductory undergraduate laboratory course at Sapienza Università di Roma, where phyphox has become the primary tool for data acquisition in many experiments. Rather than simply replacing traditional instruments, the adoption of phyphox enabled a broader pedagogical shift from following prescribed procedures to engaging students in authentic experimental inquiry. We discuss the rationale behind the course redesign, the implementation of the open project, and the outcomes observed over several years. Students have demonstrated increased engagement and a deeper understanding of the experimental process. The experience suggests that phyphox is much more than a convenient measurement tool: it can become a powerful driver for rethinking the role of laboratory work in physics education.

As artificial intelligence progressively automates many aspects of data processing, the educational value of laboratory work increasingly lies not in performing repetitive technical operations but in asking meaningful questions, designing experiments, interpreting evidence, and critically evaluating results. By simplifying data acquisition and routine analysis, phyphox helps redirect students’ effort toward these higher-level scientific practices.

Smartphones offer new opportunities for integrating experimental activities into university physics courses beyond traditional laboratory settings. In an introductory mechanics course, smartphone-based experimental tasks using phyphox and additional sensor modules were implemented as regular course assignments. The project examined how students perceived these activities, particularly with regard to feasibility, motivation, and perceived learning outcomes. This talk presents selected findings from the empirical investigation and discusses implications for the use of smartphone-based experiments in higher education. Particular attention will be given to the potential benefits, practical challenges, and possible directions for future course development.

Enjoy snacks, discuss with colleagues at the poster session and try out hands-on experiments and demos. You can find the poster list with abstracts on a separate page.

Amusement parks let you experience the weightlessness of free fall in drop towers and over large roller coaster hills. Forces required for acceleration are felt thoughout your own body – and can be registered with a smartphone taken along. Integrating accelerometer data from a drop tower gives velocity, which can be compared to the derivative of elevation, as extracted from barometer data. What is the acceleration in a swing, what forces act, what does your body feel – and why? The largest accelerations in roller coasters are change of direction, highlighting the vector character of motion. Orientation and rotation matter when the body is you own. When all students have easy individual access to data collection with phyphox, teachers no longer have to be equipment centrers during amusement park visits, and can, instead, focus on discussions of the results and challenge incomplete understanding. Smartphone data collection with phyphox is a game changer for physics outside the classroom.

A smartphone is not the best tool available for performing physics measurements (you can easily find better light sensors, magnetometers or motion sensors…), but they do have many advantages, among them being very common among our students. Another important quality, which we tested extensively, is the fact that they allow to experiments to be taken out of the laboratory, into a regular classroom, at home, in a museum, or in a forest. I will present several classes that we developed and present the educational benefits of getting out of the lab.