Outreach
Bringing people into physics
SPS hosts and participates in a variety of outreach events that our members can participate in. These provide a great way to give back to the community and share our enthusiasm for science with the public! For information on upcoming outreach events, please see outreach events.
For the Fall 2020 semester, the first meeting of the Outreach Committee will be on September 14th, at 6:00PM PDT. Please contact Charlie Cummings to acquire the Zoom link.
Fall 2020 Outreach Events
Squishy Circuits!
SPS will be regularly presenting the demo "Squishy Circuits!" to local elementary schools. If you are interested in helping teach students cool science, you will be able to help! Check back later for an opportunity to sign up.
Bay Area Science Festival
The Bay Area Science Festival, traditionally held in Oracle Park, has moved online this year! Berkeley SPS will be contributing to three events:
- A virtual lab tour, consisting of a live narration of 360° photos, mimicking the experience of being in person!
- A panel where anyone can ask a scientist questions both about being a physicist and physics itself!
- An interactive demo designed for 4th-5th graders teaching the fundamentals of circuits and how electricity moves.
Past Outreach Events
Cal Day
Cal Day is an annual event intended to show off the various departments at Berkeley to prospective students and kids! We played a relatively large role for the Physics department last year. We provided volunteers for demonstrating physics concepts and were able to share our personal experiences in Physics with prospective students!
Engineering for kids at Wheeler Hall
SPS walked to Wheeler Hall to show the kids and parents there that physics is fun and not magical. We had a lot of excited kids that appreciated and learned about our demos. We got kids engaged by having them ask questions. We made several successful "Chains of Pain".
Thousand Oaks Elementary in Berkeley
SPS also traveled to Thousand Oaks Elementary to inspire the kids and parents there and show the fun in physics. The many children in attendance appreciated our demos.
STEAM Night at John Muir Elementary in Martinez
SPS traveled to John Muir Elementary to show the kids and parents there that physics is fun and somewhat magical. We had a lot of excited kids appreciate our demos.
Day in the Life of a STEM Undergraduate
SPS partnered up with the TriO collaboration associated with DSP in order to host a “Day in the Life of a STEM Undergraduate” event aimed at underrepresented high school students who were potential first generation college students. The event featured Berkeley professors Matt Pyle and Bob Jacobsen and included lab tours of the Siddiqi and Müller Labs! In addition, the day ended with a panel of SPS members who shared their experiences as students in STEM!
Bay Area Science Festival
With the help of Science@Cal, SPS headed to AT&T Park in San Francisco to demonstrate various physics concepts to kids of all ages for the annual Bay Area Science Festival. Due to our involvement in previous years, we were given a special location in the festival known as the “Teen Scene” (where we engaged teens and non-teens alike). This event is always a lot of fun and tends to be the largest outreach event of the semester!
Calapalooza
Calapalooza is Berkeley's annual "club fair". As a club at UC Berkeley, we participated, of course! We demonstrated some cool physics concepts despite limited space and were able to meet some really cool physics enthusiasts!
