Spring 2017 Zone Meeting Highlights
by Samuel Borer
Zone 1 meeting attendees. Courtesy of Samuel Borer.
With 50+ chapters, Zone 1 has often lacked a thread of community tying us together. However, this meeting brought together chapters from Maine to Massachusetts. We discussed the roles of our chapters in our departments, shared best practices for successful events, toured the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology and the Emera Astronomy Center, and had an impactful discussion with SPS director Brad Conrad. It was a day of weaving a communal thread through our chapters and developing relationships that will extend beyond SPS. //
by Luke Barbano
Swarthmore and University of the Sciences students at the Peter van de Kamp Observatory. Courtesy of Jackie Pezzato.
At this year’s Zone 3 meeting, attendees from five local schools participated in student-run events including research presentations, a CV/resume workshop, panels on life after graduation, a Python workshop, and Physics Jeopardy. We were honored to host Dr. Roberto Ramos (University of the Sciences) as the keynote speaker and SPS president Dr. DJ Wagner (Grove City College). The zone meeting was a rare and exciting opportunity to meaningfully interact with physics students from nearby institutions! //
by Nicholas Cuccia
Zone 6 attendees on a lab tour. Courtesy of the Emory University SPS chapter.
Hosting this meeting was a wonderful opportunity for our chapter and our school. We introduced students from across the country to Emory’s culture and physics department and treated them to planetarium shows, demonstrations, game nights, guest talks, and lab tours. It was inspiring to learn about topics as incredible as the dark void of black holes and as engaging as the flow rate of urine through mammals. Bringing the local physics community together was a great experience! //
by Matthew Taber
Zone 10 meeting attendees. Courtesy of Brian Terry.
Every year, Zone 10 strives to present a new facet of development within our zone meeting, such as presentation skills and teamwork. This year, our focus was fellowship. We incorporated fellowship into the meeting with events like a game night, in which we invited the zone members to play board games, video games, and card games together. Henderson’s physics department has a strong sense of fellowship, and hopefully we inspired attending chapters to grow their own fellowship as well. //
To learn more about SPS regional zones and their meetings, visit https://www.spsnational.org/meetings/zone-meetings .
