Ö1 - Science communication in NOA

In project Ö1|Cartarius/Mappes a didactically founded outreach concept for two main target groups, viz. the general audience visiting Deutsches Optisches Museum (D.O.M.) and pupils of secondary schools visiting a pupil’s lab, is developed.

Following the concept of didactics reconstruction a completely new lab course for pupils is designed. The focus is on the clarification and demonstration of physical principles that are important in NOA's research. These principles are connected to the research projects of NOA, and it is shown why they are important for cutting edge research. The lab course is realized in the pupil’s lab of Friedrich Schiller University Jena operated by the Working Group Teaching Methodology in Physics and Astronomy. Later it will move to the modern LichtLabor in D.O.M. as soon as the museum opens. Planned experiments contain analogue setups including (nonlinear) oscillators or spectroscopy, but also provide insight into basic steps of the researchers' daily work.

Showcases of Recent Optics Research, intended to be included in D.O.M.’s permanent exhibition with regularly changing contents, will serve as an exhibition platform for the general public. This concept is first realized in university buildings and for the Highlights of Physics science festival in September 2025 in Jena. A Showcase of Recent Optics Research consist of a poster with a brief and easy to understand introduction to the contents of the research and a mockup experiment. The presentation of the research is based on an adaption of the didactically developed content for the pupil’s lab.

In the final stage Deutsches Optisches Museum, scheduled to open in 2028, will serve as a platform for dissemination. It will offer an excellent opportunity to get in broad contact with the general audience.  Two Showcases will be reserved for NOA projects, which will be presented to all museum visitors. All presentations will permanently be included in the museum's publicly available digital archive. In the museum the Showcases serve as methods of science communication and are addressing the general audience, aligned by a series of public NOA science talks.

One demonstration experiment on quantum imaging will be added to the permanent exhibition at D.O.M. In project Ö1 it is set up and designed in a way such that visitors can interact with the experiment and view the resulting image in a screen. In addition, the concept of quantum imaging is taught in the pupil’s lab with an analogue setup using laser light.