Primary school students at Richmond State School are entertained and amazed as they learn about the immense power of air pressure. 
Yr6 students at Richmond State School puzzle over the formation of a water vortex. 
Jenny and Joel spent a delightful hour chatting over the air with students of the Mt Isa School of Distance Education. They discussed the weird world of Quantum Mechanics, and what it was like to be a University student. The Australian Institute of Physics, with support from the Department of Education, Science and Training offered two series of seed grants this year, enabling a total of 17 projects to be successfully realised across Australia, as part of the Einstein International Year of Physics celebrations. With the assistance of the AIP grant, Jenny Riesz and Joel Gilmore travelled to outback Queensland in July to run shows and workshops for schools in the Mt Isa district. Working with students from preschool to Year 12 they talked about the physics of everything from air pressure and sound waves to black holes and quantum mechanics. A highlight was speaking to the Year 8 and 9 science students at the Mt Isa School of the Air about both physics and life at University, which was followed up by a visit to the University of Queensland St Lucia campus in August. Jenny and Joel are now eagerly preparing for their second trip, this time to the Torres Strait Islands in December. Jenny and Joel visited four schools on their tour of the Mt Isa district. At Barkley they performed for about 60-80 students, at Richmond there were approximately 100 students in the audience followed by hands-on sessions with about 30 students. At Cloncurry the show had an audience of 400 students, and Spinifex had about 20 students for most of the day, plus another 15 primary school students, as part of a talented student program, for a show in the afternoon. In total, about 600 students saw the shows, plus 8 students from School of the Air. For more information about this project, contact Jenny Riesz riesz@physics.uq.edu.au or Joel Gilmore gilmore@physics.uq.edu.au |
