Two groups in Physics participated in the Breakfast of Science Champions program last week.  If you noticed groups of middle school children in the atrium last Wednesday, they were likely participating in this program.  Both CCAPP and CEM hosted groups for this morning of scientific exploration!

The Breakfast of Science Champions offers Columbus City Schools middle school students the opportunity to explore science, math and engineering at The Ohio State University in a program designed especially for them.  Students spend a morning on campus and enjoy breakfast with faculty and graduate students from sciences, mathematics and engineering to learn about career opportunities and attending college.  Students then tour labs and participate in a variety of activities.  

The Center for Emergent Materials hosted 33 students from Columbus Africentric and Arts Impact Middle School.  Students learned about 3D materials in a presentation from Materials Science & Engineering Graduate Student John Sosa and then participated in several hands-on demonstrations including: learning how computers work; understanding magnetism at the nanoscale as it is applied to computer hard drives; having fun with liquid nitrogen to understand low temperature physics; seeing an application of low temperature physics in superconductivity by learning about the superconducting train; and understanding the center of mass by competing in a flying fish obstacle course.  The morning concluded with liquid nitrogen ice cream.

At the joint physics/astronomy CCAPP/planetarium BoSC (Breakfast of Science Champions) site, the students learned about different qualities of space. In an earlier visit to the schools they learned about the relative distances and sizes of the Solar System planets through hands-on activities. Then, during the BoSC visit to OSU, they first went to a planetarium show where they learned about the stars and constellations that are visible from Columbus this time of year, the daily motion (rotation) of the Earth and its effect on the apparent motion of the stars, and how these change as a function of latitude. While in the planetarium they also learned about the relative sizes of different types of stars as well as the size and distance scale of the Solar System on up to 250 million lightyears. After that they rotated through four different stations. In one they learned how telescopes work and got hands-on experience focusing and guiding a telescope to chart an astronomical image. In another they learned about the constituents of comets and helped make a comet from common materials as well as dry ice. At a station about gravity, they learned about angular momentum, the role that air resistance has on falling objects, and how these relate to the conditions of outer space, where this is gravity but no air. A final station emphasized the cold temperatures of space and the students conducted experiments on pressure, density, and temperature by using liquid nitrogen in conjunction with flowers, marshmallows, and balloons.

Thanks to all of the faculty, staff and students who participated to make this experience a memorable one for the students who attended.

Take a moment to view some of the pictures from these events.