Carolina Physics on the Road

“CPR gets your heart pumping!”

 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was awarded one of 20 grants from the American Physical Society for physics-on-the-road programs in celebration of the 2005 World Year of Physics.

Grant info found at:  http://www.physics2005.org/events/physicsontheroad

Overview

      The Department of Physics and Astronomy at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) has expanded its educational outreach program, partly in response to the announcement that 2005 was declared the “World Year of Physics.”  In recent years, our educational outreach has been led and organized primarily by graduate students in our department who have volunteered their time to perform physics demonstration shows at local schools.  While these programs have been well received and appreciated, they have been few in number (usually less than four per year), and there has been virtually no accountability or reporting of their existence.  Our new coordinated effort expands and enhances the quality and scope of our department outreach as we seek to educate and share our interest in physics and astronomy with the public.

Existing Program

      In 2004, our department provided three demonstration programs:  one public show held on campus in the spring, and two off-site programs at local schools (one for second-graders, the other for eighth grade girls and their mentors).  The combined audience for these three programs was approximately 250, and all were organized and presented by ten graduate students from our department plus one undergraduate student.  A typical program consists of five to ten physics demonstrations, such as static electricity with a Van de Graaff generator, rotational dynamics with a bicycle wheel, refraction with laser light, balloon pressed on a bed of nails, standing waves on a string, and magnetic eddy currents.  Each interactive program includes audience participation and ends with an opportunity for questions and hands-on examination of selected demonstration equipment.
 

Proposed Program

      By formalizing the student-led physics demonstration program, we plan to provide (free of charge) approximately ten shows in 2005, (three times as many as this past year) with increased participation of both graduate and undergraduate physics students.   Through this expanded program, we hope to reach a greater number of students in rural and under-resourced areas of North Carolina who might otherwise not be exposed to a program like ours.  Our target audience is primarily middle-school students within a one-hour drive of Chapel Hill, NC, but ideally we would have age-appropriate programs for all K-12 grade levels throughout North Carolina, especially if we coordinate with the Destiny science bus program.  We plan to tailor our program to best meet the needs of the students and teachers we serve, with particular attention towards curriculum standards and testing required by the No Child Left Behind act.  To assist with this effort, we are seeking the advice of the staff working with the UNC-CH Traveling Science Learning program since they have considerable experience in this area and personnel dedicated to this purpose.  The new Institute for Science Learning also has qualified staff who can help us structure a program that is truly effective.  Feedback from students, teachers, and presenters will be collected and recorded as part of a written report that will be submitted after each demonstration show.  The Outreach Coordinator is responsible for submitting this report to the faculty supervisor, and student presenters will not be paid until this report is submitted.
 

Events to date:

Future Events and Collaborations

·        Daily physics demonstration programs will be offered to school groups by UNC’s Morehead Planetarium (in consultation and coordination with the department of Physics and Astronomy) beginning September, 2005

·        Coordination with DESTINY science bus program to include physics demonstrations on two new buses funded by NASA.  These buses travel to rural schools throughout North Carolina.

·        Invited to present physics demo show to 2000+ high school teachers at the fall institute of the North Carolina Science Teachers’ Association (NCSTA) in Greensboro, NC

·        Invited to present physics demo show to 2000+ high school teachers at the fall institute of the North Carolina Science Teachers’ Association (NCSTA) in Greensboro, NC

Coordinated Effort

      As we expand our outreach program, we are coordinating with other groups that have similar interests and existing infrastructures that we can utilize to maximize our effectiveness.

·        DESTINY – UNC-CH’s Traveling Science Learning Program.  Destiny is a fully-equipped wet-lab bus used primarily for biological investigations, and a second bus has recently been added with support from NASA. http://destiny.unc.edu

·        Morehead Planetarium at UNC-CH – One of the largest planetariums in the U.S.   http://www.moreheadplanetarium.org

·        INSPIRE program at UNC-CH – service learning program for undergraduate students interested in becoming science teachers. http://www.unc.edu/~ropra/Inspire/Inspire.htm

·        Apples Service Learning Program – This UNC organization coordinates with faculty members to provide service learning opportunities for students in the local community.

·        Educational outreach efforts of departmental research programs

·        Society of Physics Students at UNC-CH

·        Other K-12 Traveling Science Programs (currently only 4 in NC) http://van.hep.uiuc.edu/van/ShowDirectory/NC.htm

·        Institute for Science Learning – This is a newly-created group at UNC-CH to assist research faculty with the educational outreach component of their federally-funded grants.

·        The Science House is a learning outreach project of NC State University.  Their mission is to work in partnership with K-12 teachers to increase the use and impact of hands-on learning technologies in science and mathematics. http://www.science-house.org

For additional information, contact:

Duane L. Deardorff, Ph.D. – P.I. for this UNC-CH grant
Department of Physics and Astronomy
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Campus Box 3255
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255
duane.deardorff@unc.edu
(919) 962-3013