Weird Science

They were hoping maybe 100 people would show up. Five hundred. The Weber State University Physics Department faculty estimates about 500 people attended their first-ever Physics Open House. "When I saw the huge amounts of people coming up, I thought, 'It's physics. It's not Space Mountain,'" said John Armstrong, WSU physics professor, who helped organize and coordinate the open house. "But, honestly, I think people are just interested in the world around them." The physics faculty accommodated the larger-than-expected audience by holding back-to-back sessions. Professor Stacy Palen's talk on black holes had to be moved to a larger room, and she gave two 50-minute presentations instead of the scheduled one. "As you can see," Palen told her audience at the start of her first session, "we are a bit surprised - because it's physics." Her astonishment, she said, is because when she tells people she's a physicist, many respond with a groan and tell her physics was one of the classes they hated most. So Palen was understandably enthusiastic by the turnout. "I just was shocked," Palen said. "Not unhappily shocked, but really just - wow. It feels so great to have the community support us that way and actually come out and spend their Friday night finding out what we're doing up here. I mean, how cool is that?" She said the idea for the Physics Open House began when several professors were talking about how the performing arts have plays and recitals for the public; and while the physics department has planetarium shows and does outreach with grade-school children, they wanted to do something different. Plus, they wanted to thank everyone who has helped them. Palen said the department has received a lot of support from the community, like a $1 million grant Congressman Rob Bishop helped procure, a new projector and improvements to the planetarium by the Ott family, and support from the Ogden Astronomical Society. "We talked about how much fun it would be if we could just do something like putting on a play, only in science," Palen said. And while it wasn't a theatrical play, the open house gave a strong emphasis to play and inspiring K-12 students to want to learn more about science. "The teachers are under so much pressure to cover very specific things that often students don't get to play," Palen said. "And they don't understand that science is really playing - you're playing with new ideas, and you're playing with new instruments and you're trying to figure stuff out. And that's play." Making the open house accessible and understandable to everyone - young and old - outside the physics department was a priority to the faculty, said Brad Carroll, physics department chair. He said many parents told him their children enjoyed getting involved with of the presentations and demonstrations "That was important: To reach the whole family," Carroll said. "I think we did that." Professor Armstrong said he has been to several institutions where he has found faculty who speak above peoples' heads, but he said WSU has a first-rate physics department with professors who can easily talk with people who know a lot or very little about the science. Armstrong said he got into physics because he found it easier than other fields, largely due to a professor who showed him how interesting physics is. "A lot of people in a lot of disciplines kind of talk above your head, and they don't bring it down to the level that can draw you in," he said. "Our goal is to try and get as many people into physics." Armstrong said people don't necessarily have to be so inspired by the open house that they become, "that'd be great if they were," but he encouraged people to "just have an interest in it because it is the way the universe works, so you should know about it." Physics professors Colin Inglefield and Adam Johnston presented the "Circus of Physics," which included demonstrations on electricity and static, gravity, and how decreasing the air pressure in a bell jar can cause a Peep to expand to more than quadruple its size. Planetarium shows were offered, as well as several hands-on activities involving lasers, nanotechnology and the self-assembly of objects about a billion times smaller than people, and even hot chocolate. Holly and Jonathan Wright brought their sons and daughters to the open house. At the nanoworld presentation, the Wright's children Anna and Michael each put a drop of a silica and glass bead solution onto a microscope slide so that they could be e-mailed an image of the structures the beads formed once they dried. Jonathan said he and his wife brought their kids "because we want to get their brain cells firing as soon as possible in the sciences." Holly said it's has been great to watch her children get excited and interact with the different science experiments; they already want to go to the next Physics Open House. The department plans on making the event an annual occasion held on fall semesters, and because of the number of people who showed up, the following open house might be held fall 2007. Irvin Jensen and his cousin Paul Gibson gave their steadiness a shot at the laser ricochet activity. They pointed a laser toward a target, which calculated how long they could keep the laser on the bull's eye while holding it in their hands. "It's teaching them the fun of physics," said Ilean Jensen, who brought her sons and nephew. She said it's hard to get the boys interested in science, but the open house is making it fun for them and helping to open their minds. What was the most interesting experiment Jensen's son Irvin saw? "I gotta say it was the roasted pickle," he said of the pickle that glowed after being connected into a closed circuit of electricity during the "Circus of Physics." So does Irvin think he'll enjoy his future science classes? "Yeah," he said. Did he think he would enjoy them before coming to the open house? "No."

You can reach reporter María Villasenor by calling 626-7621.