CMSO Outreach

Clint Sprott Jim Reardon

Department of Physics University of Wisconsin - Madison

presented to the

CMSO Site Review

in Madison, Wisconsin on May 1, 2006

Outline

 Objective  History  Philosophy  Progress  Plans

Objective

To generate interest in physics and encourage children to consider careers in science.

History

       Fast-paced demonstration show covering all areas of classical physics Began in 1984, 182 public campus presentations, ~60,000 people Began in 1988,1221 traveling shows, ~120,000 people mostly in Wisconsin but throughout the USA 23 hours of videotapes ~1000 distributed ($25 ea) Teacher workshops Web sites (2) http://sprott.info/wop.htm

(>400,000 accesses) Lecture Kit (NSF funded) ~ 500 distributed ($90 ea)

Philosophy

Make entertaining presentations to audiences that would not normally be motivated to attend a lecture on physics.

Topics



Motion



Heat



Sound



Electricity



Magnetism



Light



Modern Physics

Past Year’s Progress

 7 major on-campus shows  23 hours of video now on DVD and streamed on the Web (http://sprott.info/wop.htm#videos) 

Physics Demonstrations

book published by UW Press (2006)  150 traveling shows  APS WYP grant to visit all 72 Wisconsin counties  Second annual Integration Bee  Participation in 2005 Denver DPP Plasma Expo  Physics Frontier Centers Education Outreach Network

Major On-Campus Shows

 6 public shows (audience ~2000)  1 special show for Department alumni and families (audience ~200)  Laboratory tours

Physics Demonstrations Book

 300-page full color book containing 85 demonstrations used in

The Wonders of Physics

published by UW Press in 2006  Book contains 2 DVDs with 3 hours of demonstrations before a live audience.

Blurbs from Back Cover

Videos

 23 hours of video from past years now on DVD and streamed on the Web (http://sprott.info/wop.htm#videos)  Very detailed statistics on usage (http://mediastreamer.doit.wisc.edu/stats/physics 103/windowsmedia/all_dates/):

Google Video Program

 All 23 videos were uploaded to the Google Video Program last week.

 Usage so far:  Viewed 148 times  Downloaded 9 times

From the Physics Librarian:

 Hi, Clint. Not sure if this will help your funding efforts at all but all of the WoP videos and dvds have circulated 185 times in the past 19 years. That's pretty good for a collection of videos!

-Kerry

               

Web Survey Questions

What kind of presentation of The Wonders of Physics have you seen?

How many years ago did you first see The Wonders of Physics? How many presentations of The Wonders of Physics have you seen? Was the presentation clearly audible?

Were the demonstrations clearly visible?

How was the length of the presentation?

How was the level of the explanations?

Did you learn anything about physics from the presentation?

Did you learn anything about plasmas from the presentation?

Did the presentation encourage you to study more physics?

How has The Wonders of Physics influenced you, and what changes would make it more effective?

With which of the following products and services were you previously familiar?

What is your gender?

What is your age?

What is your ethnicity?

What is your ZIP code?

Web Survey Results

How much of this would be done without NSF funding?

 NSF supports:  1 month per year of Sprott  6 months per year of Reardon  Domestic travel ($5k)  Supplies and services ($5k)  Technical support staff  Much of what was just described would still happen (though more slowly and of lower quality)  Little of what is about to be described would happen

Wonders of Physics Traveling Show

 About 1221 shows in 19 yrs (as of 5/1/06) to total audience ~ 120,000  Mostly pre-college schools  Full-time outreach person (Jim Reardon) supported half by DOE (MST), half by NSF  Donations $100-400 per show  Some corporate donors  http://uw.physics.wisc.edu/~wonders

“Physics on the Road”

 $10K grant from APS in honor of the World Year of Physics 2005  Traveling Show proposed to visit each of the 42 WI counties not previously visited (as of 1/1/05)  Attempt to expand the “reach” of physics road shows by putting on shows in rural and remote areas  Mission accomplished! 90 shows at 50 venues to a total audience of ~16500

Physics on the Road 2005 The Wonders of Physics Traveling Show

Wonders of Physics quest to visit all 72 counties in WI by 12/31/2005 As of 1/1/2005 As of 12/31/2005

Integration Bee

Grand Integrator of Madison 2005 Madison--February 8: Aarti Singh defeated 13 competitors in the final round of the 2nd annual UW Integration Bee, a live-action calculus competition that took place tonight in the Physics Department in Sterling Hall. Singh, a student in the College of Engineering, suffered an early defeat in the double-elimination competition, but held on to win by defeating Mathematics student Steve Griffeth in back-to-back integrals in the championship match.

The Integration Bee was sponsored by the Wonders of Physics outreach program.

2006 Integration Bee Finals Tomorrow night!

APS-DPP Plasma Expo

Denver, CO (November 27-28, 2005) • 1500+ Middle School and High School students attended • 3 school visits, 3 shows, 13 classroom visits

PFCEON

Physics Frontier Centers Educators Outreach Network

PFC’s are similar enough to one another that they can pool their Outreach resources to achieve greater things than possible alone  Composed of outreach workers from each of the PFC’s. Started spring ‘05, chaired by Michelle Larson, CGWP.

 Networked with larger NSF centers at 4/05 NRCEN conference (NSF Research Center Educators Network)  Attempted to engage minority students and scientists at joint conference of National Society of Black Physicists/National Society of Hispanic Physicists, Orlando, FL 2/05, 2/06  Currently planning PFCEON exhibit at Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA

Other CMSO Outreach

Talks at physics departments that don’t feature plasmas

Self-Organization in Magnetized Plasmas

,

M. Brown American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Distinguished Lecture Program

Vassar College Bucknell University Reed College Lawrence University Loyola University Kansas Ohio Northern 11/8/04 2/1/05 2/16/05 4/7/05 4/14/05 10/17/05 10/19/05 Colorado St. Olafs College of New Jersey Trinity College Iowa State University Wake Forest 11/9/05 11/10/05 2/1/06 3/10/06 3/20/06 4/21/06

Other CMSO Outreach

Lectures to the Public

Denison University Edgewood College

Self-Organization

,

C. Sprott

4/05 3/06 North Shore Library, Glendale, WI UW Founders’ Day, Atlanta, GA 3/06 4/06

Talks to specialists in other disciplines Fusion Research at UW-Madison, D. Den Hartog

Ohio State University, Mechanical Engineering Department Lebedev Physical Institute, Puschino Radio Astronomy Observatory May 19, 2005

CMSO Overview and Activities, V. Pariev

Fall 2005

Museum Exhibit UW Space Place (est. completion June 2006)

Near Term Plans

 Collaborate with National Society of Black Physicists to develop video to be shown to students at historically black middle schools

Long Term Plans

 Collaborate with other PFCs to work with Exploratorium (San Francisco) on ~$1M program introducing “cutting edge” PFC science to the general public