Lowe creates “The Physics of Light” course for women in prison

Wright Lab graduate student Cecily Lowe is starting a physics course for women at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution through the Yale Prison Education Initiative (YPEI).   

YPEI enables incarcerated students in Connecticut prisons to take for-credit courses at Yale and earn degrees through the University of New Haven. YPEI also connects incarcerated students with resources, assists recently released students in re-entry to life outside of prison, and advocates for higher education in prison. 
 
Lowe is teaching “The Physics of Light,” a curriculum she built around discovering what light is, how it behaves, and how we see it. The course covers the basics of particle physics and electricity and magnetism; then applies this to color, reflection and refraction, vision, and the strange fact that light behaves as both a wave and a particle at once. Lectures are paired with labs such that students can test these ideas themselves. 

Lowe explained, “Outreach has been a central part of my Ph.D., particularly programs that bring physics to communities the field has historically excluded. The chance to bring the excitement of physics to women at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution was exactly the kind of teaching I care most about. I applied to be an instructor few years ago, and I took the opportunity when a course opened up.” 

Lowe continued, “Educational attainment is one of the strongest predictors of stable reentry and lower recidivism. Practicing science teaches students problem solving skills to ask hard questions and follow the answers.”