Session GO03: Public Engagement and Education

Developing a Rural High School Outreach Program

Rural high schools face significant challenges in providing their students with exposure to scientific careers. This is due in part to their limited access to scientific outreach and educational programs, for example, science camps, which are generally held at higher education institutions. To address this problem, we have begun developing a rural outreach program in collaboration with a high school in Alberta, Canada. The focus of this program is to broaden student knowledge of scientific careers and to prepare them for success by increasing their access to STEM educational opportunities. Preliminary work will be presented, including discussions on establishing connections with rural schools and creating impactful activities for students. Additionally, considerations that must be made to develop a long-lasting, self-sufficient program will be discussed.   

Lessons From Kindergarten: Outreach Activities at the PSFC

Although current physics outreach often focuses on older learners, research suggests that early introduction to STEM topics is vital to ensuring participation in STEM activities throughout a student’s career. Play-based learning, historically used to reach learners 5 years old and younger, should be considered as an effective teaching tool for a broader audience. The PSFC’s outreach initiatives have had great success using direct instruction, and less traditional play-based frameworks are being piloted in the PSFC outreach program to determine their potential use in encouraging interest in plasma science. In this session we will present an overview of PSFC activities to date, review the benefits of play-based learning, and discuss how a play-based learning approach can be implemented in laboratory/university settings to expand the efficacy of physics outreach programs.  

Documenting impacts of an informal physics program: A mixed methods longitudinal study

Physics has a strong tradition of informal education and community engagement, including demo shows, public lectures, museum exhibits, afterschool clubs, summer camps, etc. Research demonstrates that these efforts can have a variety of positive impacts on the participants, facilitators, and institutions involved. While there are many research studies that document immediate impacts of such informal physics learning experiences, longitudinal studies are less common. We are working to document long-term impacts of one informal physics program that seeks to cultivate interest and support science identity development for marginalized youth through a physics-based afterschool program. Through a mixed methods study, we are documenting the types of impacts this program can have, and is having, on youth participants (e.g., college attendance, science identity, persistence in STEM, among others). In this talk, we present initial results from the first year of data collection including both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview and artifact analysis) results about youth participants' science identity. We also discuss the longitudinal research approach and next steps.   

How to spur internal motivation in learners from a variety of educational backgrounds to engage with quantitative science

Quantitative science presents unique challenges for both public engagement and education. While it is important to have a qualitative understanding of why things happen, it is also important to couple these explanations with mathematical concepts. Unfortunately, for many learners, this can feel like an insurmountable hurdle. To address this, physics education adopts a variety of levels including qualitative-based, algebra-based, and calculus based. While assuming these starting backgrounds provides a foundation for formal curriculum, it can break down in public engagement efforts where the learning background of the target audience is either unknown or assumed to be low. Presented here is a discussion of how experiences with one-on-one math and science tutoring for middle and high school students provide insights into recognizing where people are at and building confidence to tackle more advanced concepts. By helping learners understand the big picture of the abstract concepts they have learned in math and specific areas where these skills come up later as applied to science and engineering, we can foster internal motivation. Internal motivation is key for learners to spend the time they need to engage with these concepts fully. Finally, the audience should keep in mind that the discussion and conclusions presented are based on anecdotal evidence. Future work would involve a formal research study to fully assess the impact of this methodology.   

Public Engagement at the Princeton Plasma Physisc Laboratory

PPPL’s Science Education Department is dedicated to bringing the topics of fusion energy and plasma science to the general public through public engagement activities throughout the year. As part of our efforts, we invite members of the community, particularly students from historically marginalized groups in plasma physics, to participate in various programs that will lead to a future in STEM careers. Science on Saturday, Science Bowl, Bring Your Child to Work Day, and Public Tours of PPPL, are outstanding opportunities for engagement. The Young Women’s Conference in STEM, for girls in grades 7-10, is one such program where we aim to foster future talent by introducing them to the opportunities and representation in the various fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In this talk we will present on Science Education’s public engagement efforts highlighting the expansion of the YWC, starting with a 2024 San Diego YWC edition.   

PPPL’s Science Education Department’s Efforts in Public Engagement and Training the Plasma and Fusion Workforce

Major recent reports from APS-DPP, NASEM, and the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee have called for increased public engagement and training of the workforce to ensure our community meets the workforce needs of fusion energy and plasma sciences, especially engaging populations historically excluded from the fields. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Science Education Department, with funding from the Department of Energy’s Offices of Fusion Energy Science and Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, supports efforts to address these challenges. In this talk, the author will share PPPL’s Science Education Department’s public engagement and workforce development efforts, highlighting internships, K-12 teacher and student programming, and PPPL’s contributions to the development of Plasma NET (Plasma Network for Engagement and Training), a community of practitioners and experts to foster collaboration and coordination, in collaboration with The Coalition for Plasma Science.   

"Gateway to Plasma": a plasma-focused professional development training program in Alabama

Plasma-enabled processes driving modern-day technologies are essential to the U.S. economy, national security, and scientific leadership. Yet, engagement of the U.S. population in plasma-relevant occupations is challenging due to the absence of accessible training opportunities. To address this issue, we propose the establishment of a plasma-focused professional development program, called "Gateway to Plasma", which will provide fast, relevant, and flexible training for the next generation of plasma professionals. This program will be initiated by the NSF EPSCoR project Future Technologies and enabling Plasma Processes (FTPP), which is a collaboration between nine universities (including four HBCUs) and one industry in Alabama. In this talk, we will lay out the plan for establishing the program, including (i) certification process and content, (ii) hybrid format and online platform, (iii) assessment tools, (iv) public engagement, and (v) expected benefits for the state and the broader plasma community. Focus is given on best practices and lessons learned when engaging students, faculty, and staff from HBCUs and MRIs. We include comparisons with other plasma training projects, such as the Minority Serving Institution Faculty Workshop in Plasma Physics conducted at PPPL.   

Engaging the Public through FOEP Despite Plasma Physics' Estrangement from the Broader APS

Plasma physics has a robust and growing community that cares about public engagement. So does physics as a whole, as evidenced by public fascination with many non-plasma topical areas (particle physics, astrophysics, etc.) and by institutions like the APS Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public (FOEP). FOEP awards mini-grants for outreach projects, elevates members with its own APS Fellowships, and coordinates public events mostly during the March and April Meetings. Unfortunately, plasma physicists are underinvolved in these opportunities. The disconnect may stem from ignorance, prolonged alienation of DPP from other divisions of APS, or our own public engagement efforts being more than enough to fill our attention. Still, a conversation is due: how might plasma physics communicators learn from or associate with ongoing public engagement through FOEP and the broader APS community? In parallel, how can APS incorporate ideas from far-flung divisions into its overarching strategy for public engagement?   

PlasmaPy as an educational resource

The mission of the PlasmaPy project is to foster the creation of a fully open source software ecosystem for plasma science. An essential part of that mission is to create open access educational resources. For example, PlasmaPy's example gallery contains Jupyter notebooks that cover topics such as plasma parameters in the solar atmosphere and Earth's magnetosphere, particle drifts, plasma wave dispersion relationships, Langmuir probe analysis, Thomson scattering, and synthetic charged particle radiography. These notebooks can be downloaded, modified, and re-executed. Several of these notebooks have been adapted into interactive tutorials for use at summer schools, conferences, and Plasma Hack Week. We invite the broader plasma community to contribute notebooks to PlasmaPy's gallery, and to use the example gallery in plasma courses. Finally, we will describe the need for courses and trainings that cover essential research software engineering skills that are needed for plasma research involving software.   

Time "and" Dimension(s) - Visualizing the 4th Dimension

We all live in a 3-dimensional world where we have three dimensions to travel. There is also a 4^th dimension, which we call “time”. Just like we move in the 3^rd dimension, we are also moving in the 4^th dimension - time. However, we can move freely in the 3^rd dimension, but the same free will is not there while traveling in the 4^th dimension. In this paper, a different approach has been put forward to visualize time as a dimension. We, humans, travel 3 dimensionally, but we live in a (3+1) dimensional world. We are the beings of the 4^th dimension; we are the beings of time. That means, to be able to move freely in the 4^th dimension, i.e., to time travel, an individual just has to be in a higher dimension – the 5^th dimension. Once, an individual reaches the 5^th dimension, the whole of his/her timeline would be right in front of him/her and the individual would be able to go to any of the moments in time just by traveling physically to there just as he/she would traveling three-dimensionally when going to a place in space. In general, if an individual traveled “n dimensionally”, then he/she would be living in the (n+1)^th dimension. In this paper, different approaches have been provided to time travel to the future and the past using the concept of dimensions and how an individual can go to higher dimensions.   

A Low-Cost, Mass-Production Plasma Physics Demo Kit for Middle and High School Classroom Instruction

Plasma physics classroom demos are often hazardous due to high voltage/current sources and complex due to vacuum systems requiring custom machined parts that are not accessible to middle/high schools, while cost limits accessibility to in-class concept demonstration in under-resourced schools, or schools where plasma physics and STEM are not part of the emphasized curriculum. A mass-producible kit developed for APS-DPP teachers day addresses this gap in hands-on plasma physics education in the middle/high school classroom by utilizing entirely off-the-shelf components at $200 per kit and requiring only a pair of scissors for assembly. Students construct a vacuum chamber from a syringe body and refrigeration vacuum pump and utilize a capacitively coupled plasma globe as a safe high voltage power source to explore plasma emission spectroscopy and paschen’s law, then examine the Lorentz force by building a crooks tube and apply these lessons to analyses a simulated magnetosphere showing the aurora and Van Allan belts by constructing a Birkeland Terrella. This presentation will show your university how to construct these demo kits for local outreach or distribution to local schools as part of your outreach program, and provide components lists, assembly instructions, and a classroom based curriculum.   

Connecting with Your Audience: Public Engagement Fundamentals

Engaging the public with plasma science and engineering is of utmost importance for advancing the field. Recent findings from a survey of APS membership reveal that nearly 70% of members have participated in public engagement activities, indicating a widespread recognition of its significance. However, it is concerning that only a small fraction of physicists receive training in effectively communicating and connecting with diverse audiences. The 2022 DPP Mini-Conference on Workforce Development Through Research-Based, Plasma-Focused Activities highlighted the urgent need for recognition and training, particularly in culturally responsive engagement with marginalized students.

In this invited talk, Dr. Claudia Fracchiolla, head of APS Public Engagement, will address the core principles of public engagement with physics, focusing on identifying gaps, needs, and interests in physics education for specific target audiences. This talk will cover essential topics, including effectively identifying and connecting with diverse audiences, establishing equitable partnerships, and ensuring alignment between goals, activities, and evaluation.

The primary objective of this talk is to empower scientists to develop public engagement activities that truly reflect the unique context of the communities they serve. It emphasizes the importance of inclusive practices and provides guidance to participants on how to foster equitable engagement. 

This talk is highly relevant to all members of the DPP community, irrespective of their prior experience with public engagement. By attending, participants will gain valuable insights and practical strategies to effectively engage with the public, thereby contributing to the advancement of plasma science and engineering in a more inclusive and impactful manner.