K-12 PhysAstro Outreach with Dr. David Sederberg

K-12 Classrooms

Classroom Calls, are opportunities to take PhysAstro Outreach to the classrooms to provide support for teachers and interact with and engage students in their own learning environment. 

At the invitation of Ms. Poletti’s class at Orchard School in Indianapolis, we demonstrated how astronomers are able to identify the elemental composition of start through techniques of spectroscopy. In conclusion, we dazzled students with the “Electric Pickle,” exciting sodium atoms in the brine, similar to the emissions from excited atoms in stars.

At Towne Meadow Elementary in Carmel, grad and undergrad PhysAstro volunteers led our 50 Balls of Clay lesson, in which students create an Earth-Moon model from PlayDoh, in the correct proportion of both diameter and distance between.

West Lafayette Assisted Living

With the leadership of grad student Braden Garretson, and officers of the Purdue Astronomy Club at the ready, Outreach presented two programs at West Lafayette Assisted Living.  Residents set up an apparatus to explore Why Are Sunsets Red and Skies Are Blue.  In our second session, The Sun in Science and Lore, residents learned how astronomers can detect the elemental composition of stars by analyzing the light they emit.

Boiler Gold Rush  (photos by Ky Dodd, Purdue Astronomy Club)

With the goal of every Purdue student having the opportunity to view night sky objects through a telescope, our Boiler Gold Rush hit the spot, welcoming freshmen Boilermakers during their first week on campus. 

Physics on the Road

Our Physics on the Road shows give us a chance to impact large audiences with interactive exhibits focused on teaching the fundamentals of physics. Outreach volunteers rolled out our Force and Energy Show at Pine Village Elementary, with our rocket cart, inertia carts, vortex canons, flame vortex, and more. Of course, what show would be complete without the ping pong ball canon as a finale?

Physics Inside Out

We give our annual five-day summer workshop for middle schoolers the name Physics Inside Out, with the theme of providing participants a look at the diverse range of topics in physics and astronomy.  The mix of lessons currently includes The Physics of Climbing, giving the inexperienced their first time on the climbing wall at the France Cordova Recreational Center, and the experienced a chance to hone their skills, learning about gravity, friction, levers, and center of mass.  Also in the mix, our students are like to find sound and music, heat and temperature, nanoscale fabrication of graphene, and some astrophysics.

High School PhysAstro Tours

We love visitors, and one-on-one interactions with local high school students and teachers present an opportunity for recruitment of future Boilermakers.  Dr. Matt Carlson recently brought is honors physics classes to the Department to learn about research across several fields. They hit PRIME Lab, the PUR-1 nuclear reactor, and got a demonstration of how students in Professor Zeng’s lab create a monolayer of carbon atoms in the form of graphene. What a day!

Teacher Workshops

Presentations at this year’s HASTI (Hoosier Association of Science Teachers) included the  Searching for Exoplanets computer simulation and  Making and Using a Cloud Chamber at Purdue's Indianapolis campus, which helps us serve our mission of providing high-quality professional development for educators.  Our cloud chamber workshop provided each teacher the materials to make four cloud chambers to take with them for their own classroom use.

On the Road with Style

None of the highlights of 2025 was the replacement of our aging passenger van, complete with wrap, and the wrap of our existing Road Show cargo van. Branding and visibility go a long way in recruiting upcoming Boilermakers around the state.