NES/OSA Education Outreach Summary 2002-03
Education Committee Chairman: Malcolm ChamberlainProject PHOTON
Throughout this year we continued our support of an email mentoring forum for teachers, set up by Project PHOTON (see 2001-02 summary). This forum is not quite as busy as when PHOTON was actually running but is still active enough to warrant continued support.Project PHOTON2
- This new expanded (nationwide) version of PHOTON is now funded and is expected to begin in Fall 2003. We have sent NEBHE a letter of intent to provide support similar to what we provided for PHOTON.
- All of our current PHOTON mentors, and other interested members are invited to continue as mentors for PHOTON2.
- We have two members on the National Advisory Council for PHOTON2.
Massachusetts State Science Fairs May 2003
We donated $750 for one $500 and one $250 award, and a further $250 toward operating expenses at the high school fair at MIT. For the middle school fair at WPI we donated $1000 for prize money. This was the whole prize money budget for this event. The organizers were very grateful for this donation since this year was particularly difficult for fundraising. This total was partly offset by a $1000 activity grant from OSA.Friday May 2, 2003
John Crawford and Darlene Ford spent the afternoon with the suitcase lecture kit demonstrating optical phenomena at the high school Massachusetts State Science Fair at MIT. Apart from a few logistic and regulatory hitches this was a great success.Saturday May 31, 2003
Marc Daigle presented a similar demo at the middle school Massachusetts State Science Fair at its new venue in Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This went off without a hitch and was well received. We now have a permanent place at these fairs if we want it.See OPN, August 2003 for a more detailed acount.
Future plans
For 2003-4 we are hoping to build on this momentum but for that we'll need more trained volunteers to take out the suitcase lecture kit for demonstrations.
Each year, both series of fairs also need judges; there is a place for individual volunteers to register on their web site. This web site is updated for judge recruiting, scheduling etc. shortly before the start of each Science Fair season.
We are also looking into expanding our reach, perhaps more locally with the regional fairs, and to other New England states. After all, we are the New England Section but so far have only supported Massachusetts educational events. To expand this effort to other states we'll need the active participation of our members in those states. Please contact us if you can help.
