Physics Outreach

The Physics Circus is an outreach program currently under the helm of Katie Hinko (with the unofficial title of Outreach Coordinator). Two or Three times a week Katie travels to a local school (usually elementary/middle school) to perform a 30-60 minute physics demo show. The show size can be anywhere from a single class (~20 students) to a school wide assembly (~300 students). Occasionally these shows are on the UT campus but more often Katie drives to the school. In exchange for performing these demo shows the department pays Katie a monthly salary the same as they would a TA.

A bit of history

• The circus start ~15 years ago. Originally circuses were performed in Painter hall during school breaks (during breaks because of difficulty obtaining rooms during semester).
• Circus was run by professors, staff and students.
• At one time tried pairing with engineering departments and had a large truck available to facilitate transportation to high schools for circus shows.
• Circus steadily declined in size and involvement because it’s tiring and professors/departments didn’t like taking a lot of time away from research to shows.

Current problems with the circus

• Outreach coordinator has no supervisor so she is not held accountable by the department at all and more importantly has no source of support to bounce ideas off of
• Outreach isn’t held in high esteem by the department. Many students and professors don’t know about the circus. Who wants to be Outreach Coordinator if she is all alone and doesn’t receive proper recognition for the work she’s doing. At other schools outreach programs are a source of pride for the department.
• There is no space to keep circus equipment. Equipment (paid for by department) is stored in someone’s car or in randomly around the department.
• You can’t be Outreach Coordinator if you don’t have a car.
• Funding is tight so paying additional students (graduate or undergraduate) may be difficult.

Physics Van - an alternative outreach model

• Univ. of Illinois has a large outreach program run by 1 professors, 2 head undergraduates (each receiving a 10 hr TA appointment), 5-10 undergraduates that are regularly involved in shows and 20-30 undergraduates that do 1-2 shows a semester.
• Department (or university?) supplies vans for transportation to shows.
• Being a registered student organization provides some funding from the university
• Paying the two head coordinators is essential, doing this holds coordinators accountable and with this motivation they do the majority of work with minimal involvement from faculty or graduate students
• Think we would like the Physics Circus to move towards this model with much of the work being handed off to undergraduates

Ideas

• Could put Outreach Coordinator on TA/AI applications. If nothing else this would raise awareness about the position amongst grad students
• May be able to get a donor to supply a van/truck
• NSF grant is not a financial solution because grants run out, we want a permanent funding solution
• Science summer camps on campus could be money maker. Parents pay for kids to attend camp (can be staffed by grad students in need of summer funding) which pays for outreach during school year. Currently sport camps are good revenue streams and there are private companies that host summer camps on campus. Getting this up and running takes start up funding which we might not have also takes lots of planning.
• Could try to get SPS involved. Currently SPS is still trying to develop into a strongly bonded group. Next year could start working with SPS to have them do some circus activities on campus. Need to make sure events are visible and make SPS look good so events off campus are a ways off.
• Could restructure Physics Circus to have more events on campus if that’s what’s needed to increase visibility and involvement. Maybe a big event advertised across campus at the start of each semester.
• Could develop the circus into a class undergraduates take for credit. Outreach coordinator is the TA training students from various UTeach majors to go out and do shows. ?How important is it to have a real physicist doing the show rather than a biology major explaining something he was told but doesn’t fully understand?
• Could shift some coaching hours to outreach hours

Other forms of outreach

• Helping students with science fair projects
• Judging science fairs
• Lab tours
• Professional development workshops for teachers
• Need better communication system for these events. Maybe more people would take part in these events if they knew about them.