Engaging High School Students with Lab4Kids

This year, our Adelphi University Lab4Kids program, funded by PhysTEC, visited 11 high schools across New York City and Long Island, and we had a few schools visit our university as well. The goal of the program, which includes SPS chapter members and Adelphi faculty, is to get high schoolers interested in physics and, hopefully, consider it something they could see themselves doing in the future. We do this by making science fun and engaging for them, including by doing experiments.

We also make sure that the high school students have the opportunity to interact with us undergraduate students, to ask questions and receive honest answers from those recently in their shoes. They typically inquire about school life, the difficulty level of classes, and other aspects of higher education.

Not only is Lab4Kids beneficial to high school students, but it’s also valuable for our SPS chapter members. For undergraduate physics majors at Adelphi, there are few opportunities to teach. Lab4Kids gives us this experience, and we hope that we spark the minds of many young physicists and encourage them to further pursue their interests along the way.