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Outreach Activities/Highlights

The Department's Instructional Resources and Lecture Demonstrations had a very successful year. Outreach programs are at an all time high. Such activities included tours of the Department, donating equipment to schools, loaning supplies and equipment to organizations for use in workshops and demonstrations, and talks given by faculty, staff and students at schools in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri.

The new "Family Adventures in Science" lecture series held this past spring was a big hit and will continue in the fall beginning in October (see "Family Adventures in Science" story on page 1 for details).

The Department donated equipment and materials to many different organizations, including the Salvation Army, Iowa City Public Library, Kirkwood Community College, the UI Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) program, and the Iowa Upward Bound Project.

The Department's surplus equipment program also saw a large increase in disbursements this year as the program became more widely advertised. The program gives "free" obsolete but good working equipment to high schools in Iowa. Several of those schools receiving equipment include Washington High School, Cedar Rapids, IA, Dowling High School, West Des Moines, IA, and Nevada High School, Nevada, IA. To view a list of equipment presently available, visit www.physics.uiowa.edu/~dstille and click on the 'Free' link.

Other highlights for the Lecture Demonstration area included giving a Colloquium at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, on the uses and development of Lecture Demonstrations and the PIRA 200, and an invited presentation at the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) conference in Rochester, NY, on "Video Capture Techniques in Labs and Lectures." The University of Iowa is a national leader when it comes to the uses and the amount of video capture applications. Two workshops on "Optics" were also given to local elementary teachers as part of their continuing education programs. These workshops were a collaboration between the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Science Education Department, and several grants from Operation Primary Physical Science (OPPS) based at Louisiana State University.

If your group or organization is interested in a tour or presentation, contact Dale Stille (319-335-1833, dale-stille@uiowa.edu) for more information.