Society of Physics Students Awarded

The Society of Physics Students chapter at Texas State University has recently been awarded the Marsh White Award. This award is aimed at helping chapters on projects designed to promote interest in physics for students and the general public.

Gregory Beuhler, Patrick Lisk, and Jessica Conn are officers in the Texas State University Society of Physics Students chapter, and they are currently working on their project aimed toward Elementary School students.

“We definitely wanted to do something with younger students to get them involved in more activities. It is a lot more fun working with younger students.”
– Gregory Beuhler

Their project, “Elementary Physics Videos,” holds a relationship between the physics department and Sara Torres, the science coordinator at Travis Elementary School in San Marcos. The project will consist of two short videos that will be used by elementary school teachers to help illustrate science and physics in a more fun and interesting way to students.

“The kind of experiments we will be doing, not a lot of the elementary teachers may have the experience or the equipment to do so. So we thought we would introduce the students to experiments that demonstrate certain ideas that their curriculum touches on, and we could do that in a very effective way.”
– Patrick Lisk

The chapter will produce one video that will illustrate the concept of density and buoyancy using balloons filled with different gases, and the other will demonstrate pressure by causing a 55 gallon drum to implode.

“I think that one of the most important things that we will do is preserve children’s interest in the sciences. I think that getting to see science be fun is part of what keeps people engaged.”
– Jessica Conn

Texas State’s Student chapter was awarded for their project through the Marsh White Award national organization. They were one of 15 to be awarded out of the more than 700 chapters in the country and internationally. The completion of their videos is expected to be early May.

Allie Ibarra, KTSW News