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Physics Educational Assistance, Resources and Learning Strategies (PEARLS)

Purdue's Department of Physics has developed a highly successful outreach program, PEARLS, that brings the excitement of physical science to many students who would not otherwise be exposed to physics. It also encourages teachers and parents to motivate students to pursue careers in science, engineering, and technology. Purdue brings PEARLS of Science wisdom to your school.

A full-time coordinator creates, directs, and implements PEARLS outreach efforts. Physics Outreach offers several learning opportunities for various educational needs.

The need for the PEARLS Outreach program is clearly demonstrated by its enthusiastic reception and favorable impact on precollege science education in the Midwest. Purdue's PEARLS program can serve as a model, which can be adopted by other Universities, to advance science education throughout the United States. Some of the outreach activities are outlined below.

QuarkNet

The Opportunity: "Your program rejuvenates my soul. It connects me with a cadre
of intelligent and excited educators. It reinvigorates my teaching
and provides me avenues to extend and enliven the projects that I can offer my students.
Without the Quarknet program I am sure that I would have left teaching years ago."

The Players: High school students, teachers and physicsts working together
on physics research projects exploring the hidden nature of matter, energy, space and time.

The Questions: What are the origins of mass? Can the basic forces of nature be unified?
How did the universe begin? How will it evolve?

In its ninth year, QuarkNet involves about 100,000 students from 500+ US high schools in:

  • Web-based analysis of real data.
  • Collaboration with students worldwide.
  • Remote control of television cameras in experimental areas.
  • Visits by student representatives to the experiments.

Through inquiry-oriented investigations students will learn kinematics, particles, waves, electricity and magnetism, energy and momentum, radioactive decay, optics, relativity, forces, and the structure of matter.

Purdue's QuarkNet Center

Physics on the Road

Demo's

The primary departmental outreach effort is the school visitation program, Physics On The Road. The Assistant Outreach Coordinator and other department staff travel to schools to present Physics Funfests, entertaining and motivating science demonstrations. To extend the impact of a Funfest visit, the Physics Department has just begun distribution of a Physics on the Road Teacher's Guide.

If you have any questions regarding the demo's, please contact Dr. Keith Adams, Outreach Coordinator, 765-494-0740 (ktadams@purdue.edu). View our current schedule.

During the first year of operation, Physics Funfests were presented at over 70 schools for 15,000 students. For the past several years, the Traveling Physics Funfest has impacted approximately 30,000 students per year.

Young Scientists
Young Scientists provides a forum for K-12 students to share their work.

ScienceScape

Sponsored by the Women in Science Program

A one-week residential camp for middle school students provides opportunities to experience the excitement of science while having fun and being exposed to women in science role models. This pre-college program is intended to increase the pool of females who are interested in pursuing careers in the sciences. All students, regardless of gender or ethnicity, are welcome to attend camp.

This year’s application is under development. But the dates are set for July 12-17th.
The website is http://www.science.purdue.edu/WISP/ScienceScape/index.asp

This Outreach program is intended for middle school student’s grade range: rising 7-9.

 

Exciting Science @ Purdue

Sponsored by the Women in Science Program

This is a day long program that works to give students who are interested in science an opportunity to explore and discover a variety of science topics and disciplines.  This day program includes hands-on lab demonstrations, interactions with WISP Mentors, and lunch with a distinguished faculty member at Purdue.

This Outreach Program is intended for students who are high school freshmen and sophomores.

Women in Science Programs (WISP) Earhart Residence Hall Program First-year students in the College of Science are invited to live together on several floors of Earhart residence hall.  This concentration of science students allows natural study groups to form and eliminates the isolation that under-represented students sometimes feel.

 

 First year students in the College of Science Toyinda Wilson-Long
Assistant Director
Science Diversity Office
150 N. University St.
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2067
(765) 496-6095 (PHONE)
(765) 494-1736 (FAX) www.science.purdue.edu/wisp

 

WISP Undergraduate Mentoring Program Each first-year student in the Earhart Program is matched with an upper-class mentor that shares the same academic major.  Monthly dinner and social programs are provided for the mentors and their mentees in which speakers present topics of interest and allow opportunities for networking among students and faculty members. 

 

 Undergraduate students in the College of Science Toyinda Wilson-Long
Assistant Director
Science Diversity Office
150 N. University St.West Lafayette, IN 47907-2067
(765) 496-6095 (PHONE)
(765) 494-1736 (FAX) www.science.purdue.edu/wisp

 

Other Outreach Programs in the College of Science

The College of Science at Purdue also sponsors Outreach Programs in the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, and Mathematics. You may access their home pages or use the contact information below to obtain further information on any of their programs. Visit the College of Science K-12 Outreach page for more information.

Hands on Particle Physics - International Masterclasses for High School Students

( www.physicsmasterclasses.org/ ) Each year about 5000 high school students in 22 countries come to one of about 80 nearby universities or research centres for one day in order to unravel the mysteries of particle physics. Lectures from active scientists give insight in European Particle Physics Outreach Group topics and methods of basic research at the fundaments of matter and forces, enabling the students to perform measurements on real data from particle physics experiments themselves. At the end of each day, like in an international research collaboration, the participants join in a video conference for discussion and combination of their results.

If you have any questions regarding the Purdue Physics Outreach Program, please write to us.