Nour Ibrahim, 2019 SPS SOCK (Science Outreach Catalyst Kit) Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Arizona

I am a rising senior studying astronomy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. I am from Los Angeles, California where the stars are barely visible at night. I developed a love for astronomy in elementary school and made a plan to pursue it further to become a research scientist. During my second year of university, I got a job at the Jim and Linda Lee planetarium and it introduced me to the world of outreach, and I fell in love with it. Working at the planetarium allowed me to share my love for astronomy with a diverse audience. I am excited to be spending this summer in D.C. to learn more about outreach and hopefully spread the science along the way.

Internship

Host: Society of Physics Students

Project

Abstract

Outreach is an engaging way of teaching science in which the boundaries of a classroom and a curriculum are broken down and, in their place, grows interactive and fun learning. SPS provides undergraduate physics students with a variety of resources to either kickstart their outreach journey using the Science Outreach Catalyst Kit (SOCK) or simply provide veteran students with some ideas for the next outreach event through the demonstrations on the SPS website. This year’s SOCK uses food to teach about physics in space. The SOCK includes two demos, one that simulates gravitational waves in jello, and the other shows impact craters in a brownie. Besides the SOCK, some general demonstrations were created and uploaded on the SPS website and they range in topic, difficulty, and the target audience. All of these resources are free for any student or any chapter to access and use.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

What a Week!!

My journey from Los Angeles to D.C was a long and exhausting one, but finally arriving at GWU and meeting my roommates and fellow interns made it all worth it; I knew that this summer is going to be great. Just being around physicists is great, but this internship is allowing me to be around physicists in various and exciting career paths from research, to education, to science policy, and of course outreach (which is what I’m doing).

I am the SOCK intern, which means that I get to have fun for 10 weeks, doing what I love in a great city, while surrounded by amazing mentors, peers, and friends. My job is to come up with the new SOCK that is going to be mailed out to around 100 SPS chapters to help them get started with outreach. I will also be working on general demonstrations that will go up on the SPS website. I already have so many ideas for demos and outreach activities and I hope to get as much of them done in these 10 weeks. My mentor, Brad Conrad, has been amazing with all of this so far! His energy and attitude push me to do the best work I can and prove my worthiness of this position, and I could not have asked for a better mentor.

Being in D.C. is such a privilege, and being from the opposite coast, I am determined to get the most I can out if it. That is no easy task by the way because it seems like there is always something to see or do no matter what day of the week it is. This weekend alone proves my point. Over the past two days, I’ve managed to walk around D.C. with my wonderful coworker/friend and saw all of the memorials and monuments that one person can visit in 5 hours (shout out to Jana for being an amazing guide). I also went Kayaking for the first time ever! I got to spend time with my intern friends while enjoying some jazz at the sculpture garden. And just today I helped Brad with a fun competition for the U.S physics team!

I can’t wait to learn and grow over the next 9 weeks and hopefully I’ll spread the science along the way.

Week 2- From an Idea to a Reality

I feel like this week flew by so fast and at the same time, I feel like I got so much accomplished. The idea for the SOCK is pretty much finalized now, and the theme is...space and breakthroughs! The SOCK is going to explore impact craters and LIGO through very approachable demos using everyday items.

On Monday and Tuesday, I explored almost all of the internet to find the best deals on supplies that fit the budget. I think I am a total expert in online shopping now. Like you think that finding beads on Amazon would be a simple feat, but my browsing history will tell you another story. After two days of browsing, discussions, and lots of compromises, I finally had a semi-final list of all the materials needed to make the SOCK happen.

Wednesday is when the real fun started. I spent most of my day in the SOCK room, with thousands of colorful beads and the sole purpose was to figure out how many beads were needed to demonstrate impact craters. So, like a good scientist, I started dropping balls with varying weights in different amounts of beads and I recorded my findings in my lab notebook. The most important thing that I looked for was the splash pattern that the beads formed when impacted. At the end of the day, I figured out that we don’t need as many beads as I had initially hypothesized.

On Thursday and Friday, I started working with the LIGO demonstration. The demo will use clear gelatin to simulate space-time, so my goal was to find the perfect proportions of gelatin to water that will allow it to be clear enough for a laser to pass through, but still rigid enough to support its own weight out of the mold. I made around 5 batches of clear jello over the two days. My first attempt was not that great because I was not patient and I put the jello in the freezer instead of the fridge, which now I realize is very bad for the consistency of the gelatin because of...chemistry. Luckily, my second try was very successful. It was actually the perfect clarity and consistency that I needed for the demo!! I ended up trying a very basic version of the demo using that batch and it worked out better than I could have imagined.

The goal for next week is to add more complexity to both demos and test out how they perform. It might sound weird, but since I left work on Friday, I’ve been waiting anxiously for Monday to come around again so I can get back to working on the SOCK!

Week 3 - Trial and Error

This week was all about trial and error. Being in a totally different environment like DC means that I have to experiment with many different experiences and opportunities. I found this to be a common theme both at work and outside.

I started this week by making more Jello and experimenting with ways to film the demo working. This process was surprisingly long and complicated. I locked myself in a dark room and started recording multiple videos of my demo. I quickly realized that it is really difficult to use my phone to record and do the demo at the same time. I needed to get the video from a high angle so decided to tape my phone to a chair and have it record the whole thing. This worked for a while, but it was too much of a hassle especially since the chair would not stay still. I ended up asking Andrew to help me film the videos and that made the process go so much smoother. So, lesson learned! There is no shame in asking for help when I need it.

On Wednesday my “homework” was to bake a cake and brownies to do experiments on them, which I think gives me the right to say that I have the coolest internship ever! So, I spent all of Thursday with the cake, the brownies, and some ball bearings. My goal was to see how they reacted the pastries reacted to being hit by the balls. The cake was up first, and I went to take the cover off of it, I realized the mistake I made the night before. The top layer peeled off with the cover which means that I had covered it when it was still warm so as the steam reached the foil, it condensated and fell back down onto the surface of the cake and made it soggy, Yikes! I still went forward with the experiment of dropping the balls on the cake but that was messy process because every time the ball hit the surface of the cake it got stuck and actually lifted some cake with it. Luckily, I had anticipated this problem with the brownies, so I had a layer of paper towels between the surface of the brownies and the aluminum foil. As one can imagine, the brownies experiment went A LOT better!

This theme of experimentation extends beyond the walls of ACP. On Saturday we were invited to an Orchestral concert at the National Orchestral Institute, and as a person who is not into classical music, I was skeptical. To be completely honest, I was 90% sure that I was going to fall asleep during the 2-hour concert. To my surprise, I was genuinely invested in the show! I ended up enjoy every bit of it, and it reminded me of how fun it is to perform music.

This week I learned to:

• Ask for help when I need it
• Never wear brand new heels to a walk on the trails of the Teddy Roosevelt island
• Try new things, even if they might seem lame

Astronomy on the Mall

One the first day of this internship, Brad told me that he and I are going to be the ones to organize Astronomy on the Mall and let me just say that I was beyond excited! Over the last 3 weeks, I’ve been slowly thinking about what demos to bring to the mall, but this week is when the intense started.

Astronomy on the mall has been happening for many years so we already had a list of demo ideas that have been tried and tested at the event, so we started there. The demos ranged over a wide variety of physics concepts, like light, sound waves, gravity, and so on. Coming from an astronomy background and the event being Astronomy on the Mall, I decided to add in one of my favorite demos that allows me to teach people about the life cycle of stars using balloons. The whole week was spent making sure that we had all the necessary materials for the demos, giving the interns all the necessary information and updates on the event, and of course, some SOCK related tasks were sprinkled in.

On Saturday, we headed down to the national mall, physics demos in hand, and I could not contain my excitement. The day that I have been looking forward to since day 1 was finally here. We set up our tables and laid out the demos in all their glory. Soon enough people started gathering around the demos and before I knew it, everyone was in Teacher-Mode ™ and were happily spreading the science. I must have stood on my demo station for hours, blowing balloons and popping them for anyone who approached the table and was interested in learning about stars. I am fully aware that some of the kids were mostly interested in playing with (and popping) the balloons, but I’m totally fine with that because that was the first step to having them approach the table and listen to some science while they played with the balloons. I took a little break from the demo and as I looked around and saw my fellow interns at the tables, I was filled with awe at the sight. It was sunset at the national mall, and all of us were out there doing outreach even though a lot of the interns do not have outreach focused positions. As a metaphorical cherry on top of my metaphorical wonderful sundae, two of my friends from ERAU came out to support me and catch up for a little bit!

I cannot express how grateful I am for this experience and for all of my intern friends for bringing this event to life. And of course, I am thankful to Brad for giving the opportunity to lead the organization of the event and incorporating my input even though my ideas can be a little out there sometimes.

To make a perfect day even greater, a group of us went to The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History to check out the dinosaur exhibit after wrapping up on the Mall. The summer solstice party meant that the museums would be open until midnight, which made for a great night adventure for us. DC at midnight is simply gorgeous and it is definitely an experience that I recommend to anyone who is visiting the area.