Fun Filled Day of Physics Exploration

Students at the 2014 Physics Career Exploration Day.

On Saturday, the UCF department of physics hosted approximately 100 local high school students for the Physics Career Exploration Day.

The day started with some light refreshments in the Physical Sciences Building that were followed by physicists speaking about great career opportunities within their fields. Students got to hear the personal stories of successful physicists and how they chose their career path as well as some of the exciting things they do on a daily basis.

Dean of the College of Sciences, Michael Johnson, kicked off the event with a welcome speech before several speakers took the podium. Among the speakers were physicists from the department of physics and the Central Florida community. A panel of UCF undergraduate and graduate students were also there to answer questions from the high school students.

Dr. Jeffrey Bindell spoke to the high school students about the new method for teaching physics that UCF has introduced.  The method has eliminated long lectures and tests and implemented team work with the responsibility of producing three projects using the information they’ve read about and discussed.

After being treated to lunch, the students were taken on a tour of the physics research facilities to see and better understand the learning environment at UCF. Along with the tour, were experiments and demonstrations which included making liquid nitrogen ice cream.

The day finished with delicious ice cream and the opportunity to talk with faculty members and current students at all levels.

This outreach event aimed to show each student the many different career paths available to graduates with a physics degree.  They also learned about the classes that are included in the undergraduate track for physics majors, and what they can do now to prepare to study physics.

The exciting and simultaneously educational day was put together by the Physics Outreach team, which includes the following people:

–       Ahlam Al-Rawi
–       Jeffrey Bindell
–       Eduardo Mucciolo
–       Sergey Stolbov
–       Colin Lee – student representative
–       Jenna Jones – student representative
–       Patrick Schelling
–       Kevin Thomas
–       Bo Chen