Help Physics Unlimited Reach Out to High School Students This Summer
Sara Anjum
Physics Unlimited
Physics Unlimited is an outreach organization that hosts programs and competitions tailored to high school students. This summer we are organizing two virtual events:
- a summer school geared toward students with limited exposure to introductory physics in their classes, and
- networking sessions geared toward high school students of all experience levels with an interest in physics.
Both the summer school and the networking sessions will take place near the beginning of August and are free of charge for all participants.
Summer School
The summer school will be a virtual adaptation of last year's Moonshot program, which involves a framework for an innovative curriculum in physics designed to benefit learners from across the socioeconomic spectrum and to be taught in settings that are atypical for this subject matter. Our goal is to plant a seed of curiosity in the minds of those who are excited about the prospect of learning why things behave the way they do but believe that physics is "too hard" for them. This course is set to get rid of this preconception from the get-go. To that end, we will be hosting virtual sessions to teach this curriculum to students who have not had access to physics in a formal setting. We particularly wish to reach underresourced high school-level students and atypical learners (e.g., incarcerated students, students who have yet to take a GED, etc.). Because of this, we will implement an application process in order to prioritize students with little to no access to formal physics instruction, followed by high school students who have not yet had an opportunity to take physics.
Summer School Application Form
Networking Sessions
We will also host a series of networking sessions where high school students worldwide with an interest in physics, regardless of experience level, can meet peers and older students who have studied physics in some capacity at the university level. Facilitators, many of whom are graduate students in physics or other STEM fields or recent graduates with bachelor's degrees in physics, will lead sessions of 5-6 high school students or young undergraduates. In these sessions, facilitators will talk about their own background and path through physics, ask attendees to share their own stories to the extent they feel comfortable, discuss their research and/or work experiences, and then have open and casual discussions about anything physics-related that students might want to know. Facilitators will pick a 1- to 2-hour time block that suits them, and students can choose a session to attend based on their own schedule and interests. Since this will be open to all high school students who are interested in physics (including those aiming to earn a GED), we ask interested attendees to fill out an interest form so we can gauge the number of facilitators needed and plan sessions and assign students to sessions accordingly.
Networking Session Student Interest Form
How You Can Help
We want to reach as many high school students as we can, especially students from underrepresented/atypical or underresourced backgrounds. Therefore, we ask for your help in promoting and publicizing these events to as many high school students as possible, especially those who may not traditionally have access to a formal physics education. To help centralize our outreach, we also created a form for people to fill out with info of high schools of interest (whether their own high schools or others that they know). This will help us reach more high schools more efficiently.
We are also looking for facilitators to help lead the networking sessions. Facilitators need only commit 1-2 hours during the first two weeks of August on a day and at a time that suits them to lead a session of 5-6 student attendees. We encourage all interested people with undergraduate physics/astronomy backgrounds to sign up to be facilitators.
Thanks for your help in making this event a success!