In July 2024, members of the Yale Physics community, including many members of the Wright Lab community, taught three week-long workshops and four enrichment sessions for the 2024 Pathways Summer Scholars–a free two-week summer science program exclusively for over 100 high school students from the Yale Pathways to Science program. More details from the events are below.
Workshops
The 5-day workshops included:
Radio Astronomy-Measuring the Galaxy
Instructors: Laura Newburgh, Pranav Sanghavi
Description: How do we know our galaxy is rotating? Is this evidence for dark matter? Use a simple radio telescope to observe hydrogen gas in our galaxy and chart how it moves.
The Physics of Light
Instructors: Molly Watts, Thomas Penny, Ben Siegel, Sierra Wilde, Cecily Lowe, Yu-Han Tseng, Theophilus Human, Jiaxiang Wang, David Moore
Description: For all of us who can see, we experience light and color every moment. But what are they? We will explore light’s visible and invisible properties, and how these properties enable technologies from lasers to smart phones.
Let us “Smash” Some Protons
Instructors: Laura Havener, Youqi Song, Andrew Tamis, Ananya Rai, Morgan Knuesel, Sierra Cantway, Issac Mooney, Fernando Antonio Flor
Description: What makes up matter? What are the smallest particles? Smash protons with electrons in computer simulations and study the wreckage to find the answers – just like physicists do at particle colliders!
Enrichment Sessions:
The 1.5-hour enrichment sessions included:
Discover the Invisible Universe at Wright Lab
Instructors: Caitlin Hansen, Reagen Garcia, Kenny Phan, Samantha Pagan, Claire Laffan, Aaron Chizhik, Kyra Bettwy
Description: Pathways students learn how Wright Lab researchers can make the invisible visible, with hands-on activities using detectors like Wright Lab scientists do in their research, while interacting with scientists and learning the processes of experiment, observation, data-taking, and analysis. Wright Lab researchers explore the frontiers of science, investigating dark matter, neutrinos, how matter is made and interacts, quantum phenomena, the beginnings of the Universe, and more!
Escape Room: Particle Collider Control Room
Instructors: Laura Havener, Andrew Tamis, Sierra Castaway, Issac Mooney, Fernando Antonio Flor
Description: Imagine you are an experimental physicist working at the Large Hadron Collider and you are on shift in the control room, but something goes wrong! Students will learn what it is like to run these large collider experiments while having fun solving puzzles with their classmates.
How Do You See Very Small Things With Physics – Microscopy and Diffraction
Instructors: Eduardo da Silva Neto, Aaron Greenberg
Description: Students will be introduced to the basic techniques of particle imaging and principles of physics underlying them, specifically using and interpreting data from microscopy and diffraction.
The Magic of Levitation
Instructors: Yu He, Ethan Liu, Jeet Bhatnagar
Description: Want to see many ways to achieve stable levitation against gravity?
