Details
As long as the number of participants is not too high, oral examination is preferred of written exams.
To a small amount, the lowest competence level, knowledge, is checked. This could be e.g. the different types of cathodes in electron microscopes, which lead to different classes of instruments or it could be a question regarding the different building principles of confocal measurement setups.
The next competence level is related to skills. Examination could be done by showing the sketch of a setup and it has to be devided into different functional groups and the critical aspects in each group has to be identified. Another skill to be tested could be to start from the Lorenz force and show, why charged particles don't change their energy in magnetic fields.
The highest competence level adressed is methodical expertise. It can be checked by the discussion of a real world task: More scientific tasks could be to give a justified explaination, if the construction of an electron microscope with a certain acceleration voltage needs relativistic calculation or not. Another question could be if quantum effects have to be taken into account or not when dealing with a certain type of cathode system. More practical oriented questions could regard a measurement task in 3D topography and it has to be explained, what measurement principle could be chosen for this task and which one not. A guided discussion is very well suited to find out, if the underlying principles are understood and can be applied correctly, if scientific transfer is possible and how much overview there is.
Minimum standard
Correct answer of at least 50 % of the questions
Exam Type
As long as the number of participants is not too high, oral examination is preferred of written exams.
To a small amount, the lowest competence level, knowledge, is checked. This could be e.g. the different types of cathodes in electron microscopes, which lead to different classes of instruments or it could be a question regarding the different building principles of confocal measurement setups.
The next competence level is related to skills. Examination could be done by showing the sketch of a setup and it has to be devided into different functional groups and the critical aspects in each group has to be identified. Another skill to be tested could be to start from the Lorenz force and show, why charged particles don't change their energy in magnetic fields.
The highest competence level adressed is methodical expertise. It can be checked by the discussion of a real world task: More scientific tasks could be to give a justified explaination, if the construction of an electron microscope with a certain acceleration voltage needs relativistic calculation or not. Another question could be if quantum effects have to be taken into account or not when dealing with a certain type of cathode system. More practical oriented questions could regard a measurement task in 3D topography and it has to be explained, what measurement principle could be chosen for this task and which one not. A guided discussion is very well suited to find out, if the underlying principles are understood and can be applied correctly, if scientific transfer is possible and how much overview there is.