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Physics Department Open House 2007
The Inaugural Departmental Open House was an astonishing success! We were hoping that perhaps 100 people would be interested in coming to see what we were about, but more than 500 people came to see the Circus of Physics, Physics Lectures, Planetarium Shows, Hands-on Activities for Kids, and more!
All of the activities and talks were completely packed, with standing room only in nearly every room! Many compliments were received about how much fun people were having, and it was obvious that everyone was having a great time!
The entire department participated, with most physics professors developing hands-on activities for the rooms upstairs in Lind Lecture Hall. Adam Johnston and Colin Inglefield were a huge hit with the 'Circus of Physics'. Colin was the quiet one, always just about to get clobbered by the bowling ball, and Adam... well, Adam was inflicting damage as usual! John Sohl gave a powerful lasers talk showing the astonishing power of coherent light by exploding balloons and burning through tape. Brad Carroll explored mysteries of hot chocolate, Michelle Arnold used the XRF to help people figure out if their gold was really gold, and Colin was czar of the Nano-room. Stacy Palen gave a talk about Black Holes. Ron Galli and Farhang Amiri did demos late into the night, while Dan Schroeder helped out the undergraduates staffing the telescopes at the observatory. John Armstrong was the organizer extraordinaire, and tore his office apart finding tape and pencils and making last-minute photocopies.
Without the students, we never could have gotten it done! Lisa and Mike S. did a great job directing traffic, with help up the hill early on from Jess and Shawn. Ron and AmyJo and John B. helped little kids build sundials and 'constellation maps', Trent and Josh let everyone know where to go at the information booth. Angie ran EIGHT back-to-back planetarium shows, with help from Paul, who ran things from the back of the room. Rhett and Ron got the 'scopes out for everyone. Mike M. and Kevin helped people explore the mysteries of hot chocolate, Jess and Shawn were indispensible in the XRF room. Ian and Mike H. helped John Sohl with his last-minute laser talk. Joseph ran crowd control at the door to LL 121, Sam and Tim ran the Laser Ricochet game, and Mark was the go-to guy in the nano-room. We could never have pulled it off without the efforts of all of our fabulous students!
Check out these few pictures of the fun!
Colin faces down the infamous bowling ball demo:
Is Adam really going to hit Colin with that bucket?
Colin seeks input from the audience about what to do with this here soccer ball.
Colin puts bubbles in the CO2 tank.
Stacy prepares to talk about Black Holes...
and makes the audience laugh about this creepy topic.
Weber State University Ogden, Utah 84408 |