FOEP at the 2019 March Meeting

The Contributed talks at the FOEP sponsored session at the March APS meeting described creative efforts to communicate the excitement of physics research, along with how to think like a scientist to the general public. The session was titled: From FunSize Physics to Escaping Labs: Adventures in Public Engagement and featured ten talks describing innovative approaches to communicating physics research and the scientific method to the general public. Talks ranged from reviews of the APS mini-grant program, that provides seed funding for new outreach ventures; to a report on a website (www.funsizephysics.com) that promotes exciting new research in condensed matter physics; to a talk by Prof. Paul Kwiat of the University of Illinois-Urbana on the development of his physics-based escape room (a traveling version was installed at the Boston Convention Center – as described elsewhere in this newsletter); to the engaging videos produced by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory about the development of new materials. All of the APS FOEP Contributed talks are considered non-technical talks, and thus do not count against your technical science presentation at the same APS meeting. The FOEP Executive Committee strongly encourages all to volunteer to speak as well as attend these sessions. Creative ideas can only disseminate if we share our stories.

Contributed by: James Kakalios

FOEP Business Meeting/Happy Hour at APS March Meeting

It doesn't take a PhD to determine that bars and restaurants are hotbeds of public engagement. FOEP and the APS Public Engagement department took advantage of this timeless fact by hosting a FOEP business meeting and Happy Hour. Held at Coppersmith South Boston, March meeting attendees interested in outreach joined FOEP members and APS staff for a night of food, drink, and lively conversation. Stories were shared of outreach activities and connections were made to enhance them. The event often serves as the (in)formal presentation of APS Outreach fellowships, so look out for the fun next year in Denver!

Contributed by: James Roche

FOEP’s contributed session at the 2019 April meeting

FOEP’s April Meeting session featured two talks on policymaking, one from AIP intern Nathan Foster on his experiences covering Congress, the other from Justin Vasel and Fernanda Psihas on the systematic lobbying of Congress coordinated by the high-energy physics community. We also had two talks on using technology to engage students with particle physics: first in the form of a pattern-matching game where students combine quarks to make baryons, presented by Huey-Wen Lin; second in the form of cloud-based notebooks for working with simplified data from the CMS collaboration, presented by Daniel Whinnery of Siena College. Micha Kilburn discussed the wide range of nuclear physics programming associated with the 150th anniversary of the periodic table. The session closed with a presentation from Kathleen Hinko about a project to put together a systematic survey of the landscape of informal education efforts carried out by national labs and educational institutions.

Contributed by: Chad Orzel

Keep an eye on the lookout for our great FOEP sponsored workshops on finding your scientific voice and possible future writing for the media workshops

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!