Getting Hands-On In Ann Arbor
Summer
2014
Interactions - SPS Chapters in Action
Getting Hands-On In Ann Arbor
Physics outreach event at Ann Arbor Museum
By:Grant Renny, SPS President
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Physics Palooza is our SPS chapter’s biggest outreach event each year. For two days in April we took over the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and set up physics demos for museum-goers. Our primary audience was elementary school students, but older siblings and parents were also interested. Photos courtesy of the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.
Over the course of the academic year we have been writing letters to sixth-grade students at Cesar Chavez Academy in Detroit to promote physics. We recently organized a trip for them to come visit our campus. They went on tours of physics labs, saw a microscopic biology interactive lab, and attended a planetarium show. At the end we put on a physics demo show that they loved. These activities were supported by a 2013–14 SPS Future Faces of Physics Award. (See www.spsnational.org/programs/awards/2014/FFoP/index.htm to learn more about our project.) Photos by Mary Hemmeter and Steve Bassetteat.