Can those that conduct experiments in Physics be inspired by experiments in Biology or should the experiments be limited to 'non-living' matter? 

Please check videos of prof walter levin from MIT.. His way of teaching is just amazing.. ..

anyone can fall in love for physics after attending his class..

It is experimental physics, and Leipzig is very beautiful, so if you touch some historical perspective on specific experiments, go out and replicate the experiment with them.

Let them feel involved, so they will learn and not just follow you.

For the classroom, ask them and motivate them to participate. So ask them how they would solve a problem before you give a in-front-of-the-blackboard lecture.

Of course this works better if the number of students is small.

I do not think the important thing is remembering how this or that goes (and everyday less and less in our technocratic world, with basically 100% access (24/7) to the new technologies), but the difference is in the people able to think by themselves (which is becoming more and more seldom these days...).

So my advice is teach them to think on their own.

I try to take with me little demonstrations from time to time, that shows them that those complicated concepts do have consequences in real life. My favorite one is to demonstrate them the effect of magnetic induction with a Cu empty cylinder and a strong magnet: after a complicated and abstract lecture about it, they SEE how the magnet takes seconds to fall inside the cylinder.

With experimental physics a good thing is to generate curiosity in students and allow them to create new experiments for proving AND ALSO DISPROVING some results and theory without referring to the standard procedures. This will enable to them to understand the importance of experimental method and also physics in general.

Can those that conduct experiments in Physics be inspired by experiments in Biology or should the experiments be limited to 'non-living' matter? 

Dear Julia,

I agree with you: without demonstration physics teaching cannot be efficient!

Dear Marcel,

During centuries biology copied the methodology of physics. What can you suggest as a special biological experience or benefit for teaching and experimentation of physics?

Focus on what you want the students to learn, not on what you are to teach.

Marcel

There are wonderful biological questions that illustrate the physics. For example, focusing on what you learned today

• Why does a giraffe not faint?
• How much leaf area is required for large tree?
• Does a cow that grazes on a slope give less milk than one that grazes on flat land.

Students must supply/estimate information to solve the problem. Answer to within 10%, at minimum set up the problem.