The physiXS student laboratory has been in existence since 2011 and forms part of the OLELA (Oldenburg Teaching and Learning Spaces à https://uol.de/diz/olela) university network. physiXS offers pupils a stimulating, physics-oriented learning environment tailored to their interests and learning needs. In addition, physiXS offers students training to become physics and General Studies teachers a space where they can use their own experimental activities to stimulate and assess pupils’ thinking, exploration and hypothesis-forming. Through a cyclical, adaptive process, they reflect on and adapt their teaching activities. In doing so, they also view seemingly familiar subject content in a new light, enabling them to build up in-depth subject knowledge with a didactic focus for the teaching process. physiXS is also a research laboratory where a wide range of physics-education issues relating to learning and teacher professional development are investigated.

phymobil_OL is the mobile offshoot of physiXS, used in particular to visit youth centres in the region that often fall through the cracks of STEM education initiatives. The following aspects are implemented in physiXS/phymobil_OL:

• Meaningful scientific, technical or social contexts (energy supply, climate change, resource management) provide a framework for the experimental activities in the form of narrative anchors (Vanderbilt, 1990).
• The contexts used in phymobil_OL particularly motivate educationally disadvantaged children and young people to engage with subject-specific content (Lewalter, 2009).
• Challenging problem-solving tasks encourage and reinforce children and young people’s perception of their own abilities and effectiveness (Möller & Trautwein, 2015; Sajons, 2020).
• Self-determined action: When using physiXS/phymobil_OL within problem-solving contexts, children and young people utilise the scope available to make their own decisions (cf. self-determination theory according to Deci & Ryan, 2012). The role of the supervisors is flexible in this regard.