Session U7: Physics Demonstrations and Strategies for Teaching and Public Outreach

Bringing Nano to the Public through Informal Science Education

Researchers in nanoscale science and engineering communicate all the time. We give talks, present lectures, and write papers regularly. But the general public---the consumers who will use the products of our work and the voters who indirectly set the national research agenda---do not often hear us. Informal science education---including museums, TV, public lectures, popular press, etc.---is a way to connect with broader audiences in a variety of fun and effective ways. Museums, which are visited by hundreds of millions of people each year in the U.S., are popular because they are skilled at making abstract and complex phenomena comprehensible to people from all walks of life and at making the whole experience fun. This talk will provide an introduction the ``informal science education'' field, discuss the art of honing your message into clear and realistic learning goals, describe methods for understanding your audience and their background, and help researchers to appreciate the limits of what can be learned in one experience. It will also review what the public currently understands about nanoscale science and engineering and the challenges that these (mis)understandings create for museums and researchers.   

Preparing minority undergraduate students for successful science careers.

Xavier University of Louisiana is well known for being number one in graduating the most minority students in physical and biological sciences. The reason for this success is built on the concept of Standards with Sympathy in the Sciences (Triple S). This is an outgrowth of over twenty years of planning and development by the Xavier science faculty to devise a program for preparing and retaining students in the sciences and engineering. Xavier has been successfully conducting for over ten years, Summer Science Academy (SSA) for middle and high school students; Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Scholars and Howard Hughes Biomedical programs for in-coming freshmen. Recently, through a grant from NSF, we have developed the Experiential Problem-solving and Analytical Reasoning (EPsAR) summer bridge program for in-coming freshmen who were given conditional admission to the university (i.e., those students who scored below the acceptable range for placement into degree mathematics courses). In this program, EPsAR participants will be engaged in problem-solving and critical thinking activities for eight hours per day, five days per week, for six weeks. Additionally, an interdisciplinary approach is taken to convey the mathematical skills learned to relate to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Sixty-six students have participated in the last two years in the EPsAR program. During the first year 23 of 28 students successfully bi-passed the algebra review course and were placed into a degree credit course in mathematics. In the second year, thirty-one (31) of the 38 were advanced to a higher-level mathematics course. Twenty-three (23) out of 38 went on to degree credit math course. To retain students in the sciences peer tutoring in all the science disciplines are made available to students throughout the day for 5 days per week. Faculty and students are available to give guidance to the needed students. The University has established a Graduate Placement Office and a Center for Undergraduate Research to facilitate students' pursuit of gradate studies. The results of these efforts indicate a 40 percent graduation rate in four years and increased to 90 percent in six years in the natural sciences and 50 percent of these graduates pursue graduate/professional careers.   

``Wow'' is good, but ``I see'' is better - techniques for more effective Physics demonstrations

The use of demonstrations to assist in Physics education at all levels is commonplace, but frequently lacks optimal effectiveness. In many cases, the choice of demonstration is not at issue, but rather the manner in which it is presented to the audience. Modern educational research reveals a number of simple ways to improve instruction of this kind, including objective setting, audience evaluation, concept building, and promoting engagement. These techniques and considerations will be reviewed, explained, and modeled through a demonstration of ``Why Mr. Fork and Mr. Microwave Oven don't get along.''   

Gravity - The Engine of the Universe

The pervasive nature of gravity ought to give us pause. Since gravity is inescapable, one could reasonably claim that it is an overarching theme in our universe. In this session we will investigate some demonstrations and strategies for teaching gravity concepts. We will use education research results on student misconceptions related to gravity to focus the activities.