Project-Based Physics Lab for Undergraduate Students

The P+ is a project-oriented lab course for motivated and interested students, in which they can plan, carry out, and evaluate their own physics experiments. The explorative learning in small groups promotes additional competencies in the areas of interdisciplinary thinking, project management, teamwork, and critical assessment of one's own projects. It's one of the options D-PHYS students can choose in their third year of studies. P+ stands for Project-based Physics Lab for Undergraduate Students.

P+

What does that mean?

  • In the P+ you will complete 6 experiments in groups of 6, which you are largely free to design. You will be assigned a highly motivated HTA who will guide you and your group throughout the whole semester. Additionally, an experienced TA oversees several groups simultaneously.
  • You will have a collection of experiment ideas at your disposal, and you can also extend or modify existing experiments. In addition, once a semester you are allowed to develop and conduct your own completely new and slightly crazy experiment.
  • Two weeks are allotted for each experiment. In the first week, you will discuss your ideas in your group and together with your TA. Then you prepare the physical principles and plan the setups and measurements. In the second week, you will conduct the experiment. You will find that developing together, solving problems, and answering your own questions has a very high learning effect, and is also great fun!

More information needed?

An introductory event was be held in December 2025 for the last year's course. The slides of the event are linked here, and can give you more information. Please note that these (slightly) outdated presentation refers to P+ before the reform of the physics lab course, so some details are not true anymore!

Who is responsible for P+?

The P+ is hosted within the framework of P2. The main responsible persons are Andreas Eggenberger and Daniela Rupp. Please feel free to contact us at any time.