A publication of The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public - Vol. 7 No. 1 March 2021 A forum of the American Physical Society

PHYSICS OUTREACH & ENGAGEMENT

Letter from the Chair Vol. 7 No. 1 March 2021 We’re off to a tumultuous start in 2021, or as some might call it, 2020 Part II. The past year has been difficult for so many reasons. The In this issue pandemic has presented enormous challenges for individuals, families, the economy, and society as a whole across the globe. In our struggle to maintain the connections of our communities, we also found Letter from the chair connections to communities other than our own. The pandemic made -1- distances trivial (even next door was equally distant to us as the other side of the world was). When everyone is home, anyone (with internet access - the lack of which is a barrier for many) can be anywhere. And so we, as scientists and science communicators, did what we know best. Spotlight on Outreach and We reached out. Engaging the Public - 3 - Countless scientists turned to social media and video conferencing platforms to connect to each other and to students at home and to folks bored and lonely at home. Science centers and museums really struggled Medal and Fellow Nominations (and laid off many employees), but some found small ways to keep the for 2021 public engaged. - 5 -

When we collectively rose up for Black Lives, the scientific community #ShutDownSTEM and started several social media campaigns celebrating and uplifting Black scientists. All of this is outreach. All of FOEP News this celebrates the diversity of science and those who do it, and (meetings, letter from past chair) - 7 - recognizes that many have been historically excluded from it.

Scientists are whole people with lives and senses of humor and political Letter from past chair views and pets and families and emotions. Science does not exist in a - 9 - vacuum – it is part of society. Science is influenced by the circumstances surrounding those doing it. Communicating this allows non-scientists a window into this world that is really for them as much as it is for the scientists. Science is a human endeavor that benefits Outreach Resources, & Websites humans and everything else on this planet. It can also do harm and we - 11 - need to acknowledge that in our outreach. Science is not a sterile thing, free from the influence of human emotion and desires. Science is people and the more people are engaged, interested, supportive, and participating, the more we can accomplish as a society. Funding Information - 13 - terested

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Join US

To join FOEP at no cost prior to renewing your APS membership, send an email to [email protected] with your request to add A publication of The Forum on Outreach and FOEP to your membership. Please note that if you currently belong to Engaging the Public - FOEP - two or more forums, FOEP will be added at no charge for the A forum of the American Physical Society remainder of your membership term. On your next membership renewal notice, you will see a Forum subtotal that will include $10 for every Forum membership over two.

A publication of The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public - Vol. 7 No. 1 March 2021 A forum of the American Physical Society The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public supports APS members in their efforts to share their experiences and expertise with everyone - other scientists, lawmakers, students, teachers, and the general public. Outreach can mean so many things, and it can accomplish so many things. It can excite people about the world around them. It can inspire people to pursue careers they never dreamed of. It can bring new perspectives to challenges. In doing outreach, a scientist can renew their own passion and give deeper meaning to their own work, connecting them to the world they are working on understanding and improving.

Because the APS March meeting was cancelled in 2020 and the April meeting was virtual, FOEP has invited the 2020 speakers and some new speakers to present their work at the virtual March and April meetings in 2021 (now that everyone has a little more practice presenting remotely!). The 2021 slate includes Prof. Matthew O’Dowd (writer and host of PBS Space Time), Michael E. Mann (Pennsylvania State University), Mark Miodownik (University College London), and Jeanna Bryner (Managing Editor of LiveScience.com).

At the APS April meeting, we'll be welcoming last year’s Nicholson Medal winner, Professor Lucy Fortson from the University of Minnesota. Professor Fortson is one of the founders of the Zooniverse, an online platform that incorporates humans and their inherent visual pattern Shannon Swilley Greco recognition capabilities into sophisticated computational algorithms that can solve key Princeton Plasma challenges in the realm of Big Data across many disciplines. As an example, by incorporating Laboratory hundreds of thousands of members of the general public to examine and classify the morphology of millions of identified galaxies. Prof. Fortson’s research is the very definition of Princeton outreach. This project has been shown to yield results that are in fact more accurate than University classifications made by only a few experts – the so-called “wisdom of the crowd” effect and demonstrates a novel and creative solution to the flood of information contained within Big Letter from Data. the Chair, Also speaking in the invited session at the April meeting will be last year’s AIP Andrew Gemant winner, Prof. Virginia Trimble. Prof. Trimble will be giving a talk on the Impact of continued World War I on the Sciences; medicine, archaeology, astronomy, physics, and meteorology all saw great advances resulting from the events of WWI.

This year’s Nicholson awardee Michael Barnett has been invited to speak at the April meeting as well. Professor Barnett has devoted substantial time to and outreach for more than 30 years as a founder of the Contemporary Physics Education Project (founded 1987) and the QuarkNet educational program (1997). He created "The Particle Adventure" a Web multimedia feature (in many languages) at ParticleAdventure.org. For 16 years he was Coordinator of the very extensive education and outreach program of the ATLAS Experiment at the . In recent years, he was Creator/Executive Producer of a planetarium show on Dark Matter, Phantom of the Universe shown all over the world.

Science outreach is more important than ever (we say that every year, but it’s true!), and the Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public is proud to support those working to: expand the public’s understanding and interest in science, decolonize science, and uplift and amplify marginalized voices to ensure the universal benefit of the scientific endeavor. As Chair of the APS Forum for Outreach and Engaging the Public, I invite you to consider nominating a colleague (or yourself) to be an APS Fellow through FOEP, or for the Nicholson Medal for Outreach, which is administered by FOEP. I also invite you to engage with us by submitting ideas and suggestions for ways we can support you. FOEP FORUM ON OUTREACH & Wishing you health and strength to overcome your own challenges, ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

Shannon Swilley Greco

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Spotlights on Outreach and EngagingI am lucky the in France Pub to belic well - supported by my university and with FOEP’s Nicholson Medalthe CNRWinnerS, as well as colleagues in my department and research group otherwise I would never be Questions and Answers with Michael Barnett, 2020 Dwight Nicholoson able to get involved in outreach. Medal for Outreach Recipient.

R. Michael Barnett, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory For a lifetime of innovations in outreach bringing the discoveries and searches of particle and cosmologists to multitudes of students and lay-people around the world.

Q. You have done so much over the years. Let’s focus in on your older work first. You created the Contemporary Physics Education Project, which was started in 1987, the QuarkNet education program in 1997, and the Particle Adventure in 1995. You were also coordinator of the education and outreach program of the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. What drove you to start on these projects and what compelled you to continue?

It was not in my life plan to do outreach in physics. Unknown to me, in 1986 a conference was held at Fermilab called the Conference on Teaching of Modern Physics. In attendance was an inspiring high school teacher, Fred Michael Barnett Lawrence Berkeley National Priebe, who was determined to have materials for teaching contemporary Laboratory physics. They were not teaching what modern physicists were actually doing. Priebe made contact with Helen Quinn at SLAC. She in turn contacted me, because I worked in the international Particle Data Group, which summarizes . Fred and Helen inspired me to join them in projects that would allow us to share our excitement about physics with generations of … the feedback you get from students. students, teachers, and the public can be extremely rewarding. You Fred recruited more high school teachers onto our committee, and that can see directly from emailed collaboration of high school teachers with physicists was essential in comments or in person that your producing products that would actually work in the classroom. I found efforts in outreach work have had a big impact. working with high school teachers quite rewarding, and the success of our products in and out of the classroom also continued to inspire me to continue doing outreach.

Q. More recently, you created and were executive producer of a planetarium show called Phantom of the Universe – The Hunt for Dark Matter, in which you had the help of some well-known talent and which has been well received globally. How was this more recent project different than your previous ones?

This project involved a very large set of people of different skills, and they Explaining your work to lived in the US and several European countries. Therefore, coordination and others can lead you to new management was complicated, though it actually went surprisingly smoothly. insights to your research. The biggest problem is no one in the project had ever made a planetarium show before. It is a lot more complex than a film because the screen is not Continued on page 4 3 A publication of The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public - Vol. 7 No. 1 March 2021 A forum of the American Physical Society flat. The animators had to learn how to develop for a spherical screen, and everyone had to envision how to make this work. However, I wanted to do a planetarium show, because I had visions of multiple scenes that could only work in a planetarium. Because of the novelty of this for our team, we had to go to planetariums (in several countries) to see the work in progress.

It was also great fun to work for a day with Academy Award-winning actor Tilda Swinton while recording the narration. Another two days was dedicated to working on sound with an Academy Award-winning team at Skywalker Sound, which makes films such as Star Wars.

Among our original motivations were that it was a new avenue of outreach to students and the public, and it is more dramatic than IMAX (it surrounds you). We realized along the way that for most planetariums, school visits account for about half their audiences. We also found that there are hundreds of planetariums with an interest in a dark matter show. They will present our show for months at a time (unlike feature films). Planetariums have the perfect science- interested audience for us in the general public and K through 12.

Our show has now been seen in 22 languages, in 67 countries, in 550 planetariums. We never imagined such success as we developed the show.

Q. Through this all, you’ve also been involved in your research. How did you manage the balance?

Some of these projects could be done with a small fraction of one’s time (over a long period), although the planetarium show took at least a third of my time. It would have been more, but we hired a great Hollywood producer and a brilliant director. Sometimes one’s research will make doing outreach difficult, but as a senior , I had some flexibility.

Q. One thing I have truly appreciated is the time you also devoted in the Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public’s chair line. I recall you surveyed our members to help find out what interests our forum members had, what direction they wanted to go in, what sector our members tended to be in, and tried to steer the then young forum into a direction that serviced its members. You even created our very nice FOEP logo. It seems like you have been willing to do a lot of the heavy lifting to help others do outreach and engage the public. What words can you provide to encourage physicists to get involved, not only in their own outreach, but with pushing forth the efforts on the “business” side of it all as well?

Many of us are involved with large experiments, but by contrast, most outreach is done by small groups, and the feedback you get from students, teachers, and the public can be extremely rewarding. You can see directly from emailed comments or in person that your efforts in outreach work have had a big impact. I especially like interactions with middle school and high school students whose enthusiasm is often fantastic. Explaining your work to others can lead you to new insights to your research.

Q. Last words of wisdom. If you could give only one bit of advice to our members, what would it be?

You did not learn to do research instantly, and outreach takes some ongoing interactions with your audience or audiences, whether they are students, teachers, politicians, news media, or the general public. Perseverance will lead to better and better outcomes in your outreach.

FOEP FORUM ON OUTREACH & ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

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The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public assumes responsibility for this = prize. This important APS prize consists of the Nicholson Medal and a certificate that includes the citation for which the recipient has been recognized. The Medal is sponsored by the friends of Dwight Nicholson, and through a generous gift from Professor Herb Berk, the Medal will be awarded with a stipend of $2,000. Up to $1,500 will be available for the recipient's travel expenses to the meeting at which the Medal is presented.

The prize shall be awarded to a physicist who either through public lectures and public media, teaching, research, or science related activities has

1. successfully stimulated the interest and involvement of the general public on the progress in physics, or Dwight 2. created special opportunities that inspire the scientific development of Nicholson students or junior colleagues, or has developed programs for students at any level that facilitated positive career choices in physics, or Medal for 3. demonstrated a particularly giving and caring relationship as a mentor to Outreach students or colleagues, or has succeeded in motivating interest in physics through inspiring educational works.

Full details are at: http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/awards/nicholson.cfm

Nomination deadline is usually the first business day in June.

Contributed by: E. Dan Dahlberg

Know someone who would be deserving of the Nicholson award or worthy of being an APS Fellow? Don’t wait!!! Start the nomination process now.

FOEP FORUM ON OUTREACH & ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

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What APS Fellowship constitutes recognition by one’s professional peers of exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise. Only a small fraction of the APS members reach the level of fellows and therefore this is an important recognition. Who Only APS members who are members of FOEP can be nominated for fellowship through FOEP. The deadline for Fellowship nominations is usually in May. We strive to have a diverse group of nominees and encourage the nomination of members of all underrepresented groups.

How Nomination is done entirely on-line. Complete instructions for the nomination are available at: http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/nominations.cfm. The process consists of: providing the nominee’s contact and professional information, uploading nomination letters documenting the accomplishments of the nominee and explain why he or she is deserving of recognition. Note that it is the responsibility of the nominators to provide a compact however complete nomination. Evaluation Nominations are evaluated by the FOEP nomination committee, reviewed by the full APS Fellowship Committee, and finally submitted for approval to the APS Council. Subject Outreach is a broad enterprise, spanning academia, industry and national laboratories, as well as freelance professionals such as writers, journalists and bloggers. Outreach activities are often overlooked and undervalued. Thus it is important to think about and propose people who have an exceptional track record in this area. Why Nominating someone for APS fellowship takes time; however, it is a great way to emphasize the importance of reaching out to and engaging with the public. At the personal level it is very satisfactory to get recognition of your peers. Contributed by: Ivan K Schuller

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FOEP at the March and April Meetings 2021

FOEP FORUM ON OUTREACH & ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

Friday March 19, 2021 8:00AM-10:00AM Session X15: Rethinking Who and Where: Broadening Participation Through Physics Outreach 8:00AM-8:12AM Impact of Texas A&M University Physics Outreach Programs on Students Tatiana Erukhimova, Callie Rethman, Jonan Donaldson, Daniel Choi, Jonathan Perry, Matthew Dew 8:12AM-8:24AM Rostros Fisicos: A Multimedia Project Showcasing the Successes of Hispanic and Latin American Physicists Leonela Tasé Sueiro, Maria Alejandra Loza, Emily Riley, Jorge Ramirez, Daniel Perry Lathrop, Daniel Serrano 8:24AM-8:36AM Discovering Cosmic Ray Muons at Letchworth State Park: Revealing “Invisible” Nature George Marcus, Kurtis A. Fletcher, Lydia P. Filhart, Kevin Seitz, Matthew VanAllen, Clinton Cross 8:36AM-8:48 AM From Ten Blocks to Ten Million Lightyears: Bringing the universe to our neighborhood Nicholas Wolff 8:48AM-9:00 AM Structures that support university students’ identities: An informal physics case Claudia Fracchiolla, Brean Prefontaine, Kathleen A. Hinko 9:00AM-9:12AM The nationwide informal physics efforts before and during COVID-19 pandemic Dena Izadi, Michael B. Bennett, Kathleen A. Hinko 9:12AM-9:24AM Modeling the key components of informal physics programs Bryan Stanley, Dena Izadi, Kathleen A. Hinko 9:24AM-9:36AM The SpinWheel: Using artistic expression to overcome math phobia Emily Kuhn, Hannah J. Bossi, Jenna Ditto, Jennifer Gaines, Margaret Elise Gaskell, Bridget Hegarty, Stefan Krastanov, Rebecca LaCroix, Samantha Pagan 9:36AM-9:48AM Physics Fridays – 10 Years of K-8 Outreach Drista Freeman, Chris Mentrek, James Pitchford, Janna Mino, Christian Gunder, Samantha Tietjen, Anna Ellis, Andrew Scherer, Kiril Streletzky 9:48AM-10:00AM Introducing Physics Unlimited’s Moonshot Program Pavel Shibayev

Friday March 19, 2021 11:15AM-11:51 AM Session Y15: Connecting with the Public 11:15AM-11:51AM The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet Invited Speaker: Michael Mann 11:51AM-12:27PM Title TBD Invited Speaker: Jeanna Bryner 12:27PM-1:03PM Title TBD Invited Speaker: Matthew O’Dowd 1:03PM-1:39PM Title TBD Invited Speaker: MarkMiodownik

Double your exposure by giving an outreach talk in addition to your science talk! The Forum for Outreach and Engaging the Public will have contributed talk sessions at the March and April meetings. Importantly, these talks do not count against you, so you can still submit a scientific presentation. We look forward to hearing about your work!

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FOEP at the March and April Meetings 2021

FOEP FORUM ON OUTREACH &

ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

The April Meeting’s program is not out yet, but look for the following invited speakers:

Lucy Fortson: 2019 Nicholson Medal winner. Dr. Fortson is one of the founders of the Zooniverse, an online platform that incorporates humans and their inherent visual pattern recognition capabilities into sophisticated computational algorithms that can solve key challenges in the realm of Big Data across many disciplines. See our Spotlight article featuring Dr. Fortson in FOEP’s Spring 2020 newsletter.

Virginia Trimble: AIP Andrew Gemant winner, will be giving a talk on the Impact of World War I on the Sciences; medicine, archaeology, astronomy, physics, and meteorology all saw great advances resulting from the events of WWI.

Michael Barnett: 2020 Nicholson Medal Winner. Dr. Barnett is a founder of the Contemporary Physics Education Project (founded 1987) and the QuarkNet educational program (1997). He created "The Particle Adventure" a Web multimedia feature (in many languages) at ParticleAdventure.org. For 16 years he was Coordinator of the very extensive education and outreach program of the ATLAS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. In recent years, he was Creator/Executive Producer of a planetarium show on Dark Matter, Phantom of the Universe shown all over the world. See our Spotlight article featuring Dr. Barnett in this newsletter.

Double your exposure by giving an outreach talk in addition to your science talk!

The Forum for Outreach and Engaging the Public will have contributed talk sessions at the March and April meetings. Importantly, these talks do not count against you, so you can still submit a scientific presentation. We look forward to hearing about your work!

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Letter from the Past… Chair

by: James Kakalios

The new year marks the end of my term as Chair of FOEP, and I move on the position of Past- Chair…Again! The Chair in any APS unit serves for four years, first as the Vice-Chair, then Chair-Elect, as Chair and in the fourth year, as Past-Chair. Each position has unique responsibilities, and one of the Past- Chair’s is heading the committee that compiles a slate of candidates to stand for election for the next year (and if anyone reading this is interested in running, please respond to the solicitation from APS coming later this year). When FOEP first began and held its very first election for the Executive Committee, there was not yet a Chair, and no one to fulfill the job of the Past-Chair. Consequently, I agreed to run and was elected to be the first FOEP Past-Chair, without yet having been Chair. If in the future I find myself Past-Chair once again, well, then I’ll know that I am stuck in a time loop!

I am honored to have the opportunity to serve the members of FOEP. Of all the contributions physicists can make towards society, I believe that especially now one of the most crucial may be outreach and engaging the public. From vaccine safety to climate change, a significant number of people are rejecting scientific facts and the very process by which science gains knowledge of the natural world. We’ve been hammered by several disasters this past year and will be spending a lot of time and energy fixing things. So if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to use the start of a new year, and the proverbial clean slate it brings, to consider the opportunities and challenges faced by those committed to scientific outreach. And I’ve concluded that, to paraphrase the Bard, the fault lies not in the stars but within ourselves.1

Psychology and Neuroscience have identified a phenomenon termed the “Backfire Effect,” which accounts for why we resist new information that conflicts with our preconceived notions.2 Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have found that the region of the brain that responds to a physical threat also reacts to an intellectual one. This is the amygdala, and put roughly, it is the seat of our emotions, particularly fear, anxiety and aggression. The amygdala triggers the adrenaline rush that accompanies a “fight or flight” response to danger, even when the danger is only to our internal world view. When test subjects in a functional MRI scanner heard statements that challenged deeply held opinions, activity in the amygdala increased dramatically, as if the person was being physically threatened. And more evidence or better arguments are not the answer – the more data comes in that conflicts with a pre-existing world view, the more our brains reject it.

In the 1930’s, the writer Upton Sinclair famously said: “it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” The Backfire Effect may account for why this is – for most of us a threat to our salary is equivalent to potential physical harm. This wiring in the brain made a lot of sense for our early ancestors for whom “salary” was equivalent to “daily survival.” Now, when this effect interferes with the assimilation of new knowledge that conflicts with our prior understanding of the world, it can be a serious problem.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically raised the stakes of the Backfire Effect. With a portion of the population refusing to follow guidelines on wearing masks and social distancing, and some proclaiming that they will decline vaccines when they are available,3 such attitudes cross over into being matters of life and death.

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To anyone who has devoted time and effort to public engagement and , the Backfire Effect is particularly harsh news. It suggests that engaging the public is a matter of either preaching to the choir, or to a brick wall, and in either case one is unlikely to grow the congregation. While we can’t turn off the amygdala (nor should we want to), we can counter the defensive emotions it causes when new information that challenges preconceptions is encountered.

Presenting information to others in a non-confrontational manner can avoid triggering the Backfire Effect in the first place. As Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “We often contradict an opinion for no other reason than that we do not like the tone in which it is expressed.” Leveraging someone’s interests in some aspect of popular culture (sports, Star Trek or Star Wars, superheroes, NASCAR, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Game of Thrones), or just telling interesting and engaging stories, have proven effective modes of science communication.

There are other techniques for countering the Backfire Effect.4 Topic Rebuttal involves combating misinformation and requires knowledge of the field under discussion and a reminder that anecdotal evidence is not data. Technique Rebuttal consists of pointing out when someone is cherry-picking information, or demanding unreasonable standards, such as insisting on a vaccine being 100% effective, or equally having 0% risk. Another approach is “evidence communication,” that aims to inform rather than persuade, and highlights trustworthiness as deriving from expertise, honesty and good intentions.5 “Whataboutism” is a frequent reflex often used to deflect from the point that is considered a threat to one’s world-view. We can often spot such evasions in others – the hard part is to catch ourselves when we do it!

Scientists are not immune to the Backfire Effect, as there are many examples where a scientist has doubled down on a pet theory rather than accept data that disproves it. It takes continued and sustained effort to learn to be your own harshest critic and to admit to being wrong. The key is to regard new information openly, testing it for validity, and importantly, being willing to change our mind if the new information warrants it.

Our country is divided politically, and we cannot afford to be similarly polarized on scientific matters. To solve the challenges we face, from pandemics to climate change, we need first to clearly understand the causes and effects. We must recognize that the Backfire Effect and faulty reasoning undercuts the critical thinking that can lead to solutions. The ingenuity and creativity that enabled the technologies that make our every day extraordinary can also solve our most pressing problems, but only if we accept the science. The members of FOEP can play a valuable role in communicating science to the general public. Now let’s get to work!

References 1. Inman, Matthew, Believe, The Oatmeal,: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe 2. McRaney, David, The Backfire Effect, You Are Not So Smart, (2011) https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/ 3. Bardon, Adam, Coronovirus Responses Highlight How Humans Have Evolved to Dismiss Facts That Don’t Fit in their Worldview, Scientific American (2020) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coronavirus-responses-highlight-how-humans-have-evolved- to-dismiss-facts-that-dont-fit-their-worldview/# 4. Kwon, Diana, How to Debate a Science Denier, Scientific American (2019) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-debate-a-science-denier/ 5. Blastland, M. et al., Five rules for evidence communication, Nature (2020) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03189-1

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Outreach Info & Resources

APS Physics Central has an “Outreach Guide!” The guide provides ideas, opportunities, and information on how to conduct various types of outreach. Check it out! https://www.aps.org/programs/outreach/guide/ And within this guide you’ll find information about:

Outreach Ideas • Physics on the Road • Public Lectures - One Time • Public Lectures - Series • Open Houses • Science Cafes • Demo Shows (on campus) • Working with a Museum

Outreach Tips • Public Relations • Working with Children and Schools

Demos List, Experts

The has a website devoted to Public Engagmeent: http://www.iop.org/activity/outreach/index.html This website provides ideas for outreach activities, how to run an event, evaluation of an event or activity, as well as sign ups for events (in the UK).

Find out about IOP’s 3 minute wonder challenge: http://www.iop.org/activity/3-minute-wonder/page_60438.html

The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science Has many resources, and classes you can sign up for at Stony Brook University. There is a “Workshops on the Road” program that visits other locations. Check out their website for ideas and information. http://www.centerforcommunicatingscience.org/alan-alda/ Questions and Ideas Want to get more involved? Email someone on the executive committee. Contact info can be found on the last page of this newsletter or online at: The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public at http://www.aps.org/units/foep/governance/officers/index.cfm

Newsworthy Items? Have an idea for something to include in the Newsletter: An outreach activity, an idea for an article, best practices, what does and doesn't work, or something else? Please send your ideas to the newsletter editor at [email protected]

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Web Sites that Engage and Inform the Public

Fun Size Physics: https://funsizephysics.com/

Seeker: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzWQYUVCpZqtN93H8RR44Qw

Minute Physics: https://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics

Veritasium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wuh0NRG1s

Mathologer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuIIjLr6vUA

The Particle Adventure: https://www.particleadventure.org/

Contemporary Physics Education Project: https://www.cpepphysics.org/

Phantom of the Universe: http://phantomoftheuniverse.com/

Physics Tutorials: https://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Tutorial Fermilab videos: https://tinyurl.com/drdonvideo APS Physics Central: Physics in Action, Physics in Pictures, Physics +, Physics@Home, and more http://www.physicscentral.com OSA’s Optics for Kids website: Activities, Celebrities, Timelines, and more across the globe http://www.optics4kids.org/home/

IOP Physics.org: http://www.physics.org

NASA Outreach Resources http://science.nasa.gov/researchers/education-public-outreach/

Expanding your Horizons Network http://www.eyhn.org/aboutmain

International Particle Physics Outreach Group http://ippog.org/resources/types/activities Let FOEP Post Your Outreach Links Do you have a favorite web site, web article, and or video you like, or perhaps your own outreach website? Send it to us for consideration of inclusion on this page so everyone can enjoy it. Send ideas to: [email protected] 12 A publication of The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public - Vol. 7 No. 1 March 2021 A forum of the American Physical Society

Funding Information

APS grants for public outreach and informing the public APS annually awards several grants up to $10,000 to help APS members develop new physics outreach activities. Programs can be for traditional K-12 audiences or projects for engaging the public. http://www.aps.org/programs/outreach/grants/

Marsh W. White Awards are made to Society of Physics Students Chapters "to support projects designed to promote interest in physics among students and the general public." https://www.spsnational.org/awards/marsh-white

SPIE education and outreach grants for photonics and optics As part of its education outreach mission, SPIE provides support for optics and photonics related education outreach projects. http://spie.org/education/education-outreach-resources/education-outreach-grants

AAPT - American Association of Physics Teachers Bauder Fund Grants for Physics Outreach Programs Can provide funds to obtain and or build and support traveling exhibits of apparatus. http://www.aapt.org/Programs/grants/bauderfund.cfm

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation offers grants toward promoting science and science understanding to the general public. https://sloan.org/grants/apply

IOP Institute of Physics Public Engagement Grants – open to all but only for projects that take place within the UK and Ireland https://www.iop.org/about/grants/outreach/page_38843.html

EPS European Physical Society Two grants that can fall into the outreach category are the EPS grant for Regional Physical Society Meetings that include items outside their usual grant categories, and EPS Award for Pre-University International Physics Competitions. http://www.eps.org/?page=support_grants

Many institutions have their own internal outreach funding programs.

Contributed by: H.M. Doss FOEP FORUM ON OUTREACH & ENGAGING THE PUBLIC

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PHYSICS OUTREACH & ENGAGEMENT Executive Committee Chair: Shannon Swilley Greco (01/21 - 12/21) Princeton Plasma Phys Lab

Chair-Elect: Shireen Adenwalla (01/21 - 12/21) Univ of Nebraska - Lincon

Past Chair: James Kakalios (01/21 - 12/21) Univ of Minn - Minneapolis

Vice Chair: Roxanne Hughes (01/21 - 12/21) National High Magnetic Field Lab.

Secretary/Treasurer: E. dan Dahlberg (1/20 - 12/22) Univ of Minn - Minneapolis

Member at Large: Rebecca C Thompson (01/20 - 12/21) Fermilab

Member-at-Large: Duwage C Perara (01/20 - 12/21) Univ of Maine

Member-at-Large: Christina E. Love (01/21 - 12/22) Drexel Univ

Member at Large: Artemis Spyrou (01/21 - 12/22) Michigan State Univ

FOEP Membership – Join Today

To join FOEP at no cost prior to renewing your APS membership, you can get your ID badge scanned at a meeting, send an email to [email protected] with your request to add FOEP to your membership, or send a letter requesting membership to APS membership department. Please note that if you currently belong to two or more forums, FOEP will be added at no charge for the remainder of your membership term. On your next membership renewal notice, you will see a Forum subtotal that will include $10 for every Forum membership over two.

Physics Outreach & Engagement is a non-peer-reviewed newsletter of the Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public, a forum of the American Physical Society. It provides information and news related to the Forum and provides a medium for Forum members to exchange ideas. Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the APS or of the Forum. If you would like to submit an article, commentary, letter, review, or contact us about another issue, please email the editor, [email protected]

The Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public can be found on the web at http://www.aps.org/units/foep/index.cfm