This year, the activities I participated in included staffing Grandparents University (GPU), PEOPLE, and serving as a docent at the Physics Museum.
I enjoyed my time in these activities; they were all similar outreach programs where you do a demonstration, let the audience experiment for themselves, and ask them questions to guide them towards the physics behind the demonstration. What made each outreach experience different was the target audience.
The open house on Saturdays at the Physics Museum typically catered to parents and younger kids who were touring Madison or simply looking for weekend activities. I also got to meet undergraduate students who created some of the demonstrations in the museum, and it was cool to see their family support them in their achievement.
As a teaching assistant, I used the rotating wheel in the Physics Museum to demonstrate angular momentum to my PHYS 103 and 207 students. Rotation is always a trickier topic to teach. I think it was a great way for them to see conservation of angular momentum demonstrated and make connections to real-life applications such as figure skating.
With PEOPLE, a program designed for college readiness, the target audience is high school students. My experience has been that high school students are the hardest to draw in, primarily because they are reluctant to show much enthusiasm. This made it rewarding to see students who didn’t have much knowledge or interest in Physics engaged by the end of the week.
The last event was GPU, an outreach program for grandparents and their grandchildren. GPU has similar demonstrations and activities as PEOPLE, but condensed into 2 days. While high school students are the hardest to draw in, kids are the hardest to keep up with, as their curiosity and wonder had them bouncing from one idea to the next. It was an endearing challenge.
GPU and PEOPLE were humbling. I have always prided myself on being a good science communicator. However, my experience with GPU and PEOPLE reminded me that just like anything else, science communication is a skill that needs to be practiced. In addition, being so ingrained in the highly specialized subfield makes it challenging to communicate general physics. Regardless, I took it as a learning experience to practice my skills and get better. Every look of confusion or follow-up question was a signal for me to be more concise or pivot to another analogy. I also learned so much myself. It’s one thing to solve equations, but explaining to someone else pinpoints the gaps in your knowledge–humbling yet an effective form of learning.
I am also thankful to have been paired with experienced graduate students for GPU and PEOPLE. The process felt less intimidating knowing that I could learn from other graduate students.
I am grateful for my time as a Wonders of Physics Fellow. It has been a fun, humbling, and rewarding experience.