In the past few years, major efforts have been made at Mainz in order to strengthen the knowledge transfer to the general public and especially to schools. As a consequence, Mainz has been selected by BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) as one of three hubs of the KONTAKT Network (also known as Netzwerk Teilchenwelt) for outreach programs in nuclear and hadron physics. The Research Unit will be fully involved in this activity as well as activities offered through the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence.
Recent highlights in the physics outreach programme are:
- A successful program of guided tours at MAMI (before the pandemic, approximately 1,000 visitors per year); during the pandemic a virtual tour of MAMI has been established with several hundred visitors so far
- A dedicated physics lecture program on Saturdays (Physik am Samstag) aimed at high school students
- A Science Fair (Wissenschaftsmarkt) is succesfully held on a yearly basis in the city of Mainz and organized by the Mainzer Wissenschaftsallianz (online in 2021)
- Around 40 practical trainings per year for high school students (Schülerpraktikum)
- Development of master classes for high school students
- For the most interested and motivated high school students a yearly Mainz Academy in Particle Physics (Mainzer Teilchenphysikakademie) is offered, in which the students actively carry out an experiment at MAMI
- A public lecture series on topics from the field of hadron and particle physics at the State Theater of Mainz (Physik im Theater)
- At our open house day, high school students can get to know the courses at JGU and visit the Institute for Nuclear Physics