Fysikkløypa is an exercise-based "play and learn"-assignment aimed for sixth grade at primary schools in the local counties Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal. It consists of 30 different experiments and quiz-questions on light, electricity, magnetism, sound, air and water.

Fysikkløypa will in 2007 be held in week 4, week, 7 and week 11. Each day of these three weeks, there comes about 70 12 year old children to NTNU and they get to see different parts of campus Gløshaugen.

With Fysikkløypa we wish to provoke curiosity and incite to wondering on how things are put together in Nature. The assignment is aimed at sixth grade at primary school in order to--at an early stage--increase the motivation for mathematics, natural sciences and technology. The point is to let the children themselves perform the experiments, and not just get things demonstrated. The children get to visit an anechoic room, use lasers, boil water at 40 degrees Celsius, experience buoancy, connect electric circuits and experiment with magnets. To solder resistances and light emitting diodes to make a "spider" with glowing eyes is one of the most popular exercises. One of the pupils expressed her excitement at the end of the day by saying "I think I will do sixth grade again just to come back here next year as well!". The response from pupils and teachers has been very positive.

Fysikkløypa is a collaboration between the Department of Physics, the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, and the Programme for Teacher Education. It was first arranged in 2005 in connection with the Year of Physics, and following the huge success it became, it was arranged in 2006 and will now in 2007 be arranged for the third consecutive year.

Text: Snorre Hansen, Department of Physics