Maria Stokes, 2020 AIP Center for History of Physics Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: University of Utah

I am a recent graduate from the University of Utah with Honors Bachelor Degrees in Astrophysics and History. During my undergraduate career, I conducted interdisciplinary research, examining the development of scientific method in astronomy. I am passionate about teaching, and have worked as a Learning Assistant for five semesters. I am excited to learn from my fellow interns and further develop interdisciplinary skills as an SPS Intern! After completing the SPS Internship Program, I intend to do service work with the chronically homeless and to ultimately complete graduate studies in the history of science. In my free time I enjoy hiking and photography.

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Project

Abstract

Standard historical narratives of physics overlook the substantial contributions of many individuals. Small inclusions regarding the stories of individuals from underrepresented groups in the international physics community can be showcased in lesson plans on a variety of physics topics. I have completed three teaching guides that each introduce a physics topic, highlight the contribution of an individual from an underrepresented group in physics, and include a unique visual element as a tool for classroom engagement and outreach. This presentation includes examples from these lesson plans and discusses explored outreach avenues, particularly regarding science communication writing in the Ex Libris Universum blog at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Humanizing

Hello and welcome to my first blog post of the summer!

This week was full of introductions. It wonderful to get see my fellow interns, mentors, and program leaders. I was initially worried that the online nature of the program would make it impersonal, but I have not found that to be the case. Though nothing can replace the ability to shake hands and be immersed in a new place filled with new people, I have felt welcomed into a new community. The team at the Niels Bohr Library and Archives (NBLA) organized video calls to meet me and Abigail (we are both working at NBLA on different projects). I have learned that completing my work around rows books brings a bit of a library feel.

The interns spent some time together during a virtual game night. I am now acquainted with Jackbox games. We have also established that as a group of interns, we cover the entire continental US when it comes to time zones. This means that through video calls, I have been able to enjoy several sunsets in the same evening! On top of that, I have been able to see many adorable animals.

This week I brainstormed how I want to contribute to the History of Physics Center’s teaching guides, which highlight the stories and contributions of women and minorities in physics. I am very interested in pre-modern Arabic astronomy and hope to showcase it in a meaningful, relevant manner. I also want to incorporate the stories of immigrant Nobel Prize winners into new lesson plans.

Before I completely jumped in, I did some background reading on the relevance of history to physics, and I found it enthralling. To put it succinctly, history reveals the personal aspects of physics, and that can be extraordinarily powerful. The misconceptions that history is all about memorizing dates and the misconception that physics is done in isolation are both prevalent and need to be debunked. My goal is to make the teaching guides I work on easily implementable and engaging on the human level. Human stories are impactful, and are perhaps even more relevant now given everything that is going on.

Omitted

I never imagined I would conduct historical research without access to physical books. It turns out that books are rather useful when it comes to certain forms of historical research (please contain your surprise).

Fortunately, there are some workarounds! The first part of my week was devoted to learning about the online resources of the Niels Bohr Library and Archives and scouring other online sources. The team at the Niels Bohr Library and Archives has been an enormous help. I was able to find useful material on early Middle Eastern science, both Persian and Arab. I hope to condense my research into a classroom handout to provide an often-overlooked historical background to accompany a lesson on inertia. My goal is to complete my first lesson plan by the end of this coming week!

Though it has been difficult to find good sources at times, there been moments of great encouragement. One of the footnotes I came across in a history of mathematics book chapter (in George Gheverghese Joseph’s The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics) was a real eye-opener. It turns out that we not only have the Islamic Golden Age to thank for the development of the concept of inertia, but we also can thank Arab scholars for our understandings of light refraction, gravity, evolution, and scientific method itself. Yet, this has been omitted from the generally presented history.

In addition to Arabic science, I also spent time looking at other ways to organize the guides that might be useful to teachers. For this task, I looked at several of the completed guides. I was once again struck by the work of the Harvard computers, including Catherine Johnson, an African American woman established the stellar classification system we continue to use. Though the histories of minority groups may be hard to find, the stories are compelling and should be shared.

Today’s issues are worth still more consideration. In regards to recent events, these words are my own. I am glad that AIP particpated in #ShutDownSTEM in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. We were asked to reflect on how to best respond, because, as Rev. Al Sharpton stated in George Floyd’s eulogy, “what happened to Floyd happens every day in this country, in education, in health services, and in every area of American life.” History shows that small actions (and inactions) can compound. I think the first step to responding is identifying our avenues. Are we in a position to influence a company or classroom? Leaders and educators have far more influence than they may realize. I was encouraged by my professors who shared about women who transformed the field of physics, both in their research, and by paving the way for future women in physics. We must listen to the experiences of those in positions we are not. We must take responsibility and act because the small things matter. Furthermore, each of us, in our own ways, are educators, affecting those around us, with our actions, inactions, words and ingrained habits.

Mountains

This week’s update has to do with three mountains, two natural and one metaphorical.

First up is a range you have probably never heard of- the in Southern Utah, home to Cedar Breaks. The online format of the internship allowed me to spend some time with family in Southern Utah. While these mountains are a bit of a trip from Washington D.C., they are only a few hours from the Salt Lake area. As I only need Wi-Fi for my work (granted the connection wasn’t as good as I had hoped), I was able to enjoy a few half days and a weekend around the peaks and lakes of Southern Utah. The views were fantastic, consisting of volcanic and red rock, and to top it off, I was able to enjoy the dark skies.

My internship update for the week is the metaphorical mountain, a summit. I am happy to say that I completed a draft of my first lesson plan! I think the next two weeks will be easier now that I am familiar with the process. Furthermore, I am particularly happy with my first teaching guide because it focuses on a heavily covered topic (across many levels of physics teaching): the law of inertia. I also hope that the historical research I included can serve as a useful launching point for future interns interested in Arabic, Turkish and Persian contributions to physics.

The third mountain range is one that I have never seen: the Appalachians. During the interns’ hangout this week Samantha shared her love for the Appalachians. Most of my knowledge of the Appalachians comes from hearsay from friends I have met in the West (and I learned my biases for Western mountains quickly). Mountains came up again during our call with the Executive Board of SPS, when I learned that quite of few members of our group enjoyed mountain biking. While I am more of a hiker than a biker, it was cool to see everyone’s love of different mountains and outdoor activities. While I still have a healthy affinity Utah’s ranges, I look forward to the day I can hike the Appalachian Mountains.

Until next week!

Unified

Some of you may have noticed that I consistently chose one-word titles for my blog posts. I like to think that it is because single, strong words are attention-grabbing. The more likely reason is that I am a creature of habit. Regardless, the word for this week is unified, thanks to Dr. Abdus Salam, one of the three men credited for the discovery of electroweak force.

This week, my research focus shifted about a thousand years (without changing location). My first lesson plan highlighted the contributions of polymaths in the Islamic Golden Age. My second lesson plan centers on the first, and only, Physics Nobel Laureate from a Muslim nation, Abdus Salam. I think that because of the geographical situation, the two topics complement each other in interesting ways, which I hope to further later on.

Some of you may have heard of Abdus Salam, either from a recent documentary or from a book, Cosmic Anger, which was reviewed in Physics Today several years back. Yet, I will venture the guess that many of you may not know of him (I for one did not), which will change shortly.

There are three easily identifiable focuses in the biographies of Abdus Salam: physics, faith, and commitment to advance physics research in developing nations. Salam became interested in physics at a young age, and because of his promise, the state of Pakistan funded his education at Cambridge. He made a name for himself in the international physics community even before he completed his PhD. Salam returned to Pakistan to develop physics there, but he ran into institutional difficulties and faced religious persecution. Salam departed Pakistan for England, where he worked on unification theory and continued to support science in developing countries.

I am astounded by the number of facets in his life and work, including his enormous contributions to physics, his activism, his response to persecution, and his navigation of the introduction of nuclear weapons. I plan to include some of his striking quotes in the lesson plan, including the following from his speech at the 1979 Nobel Prize Banquet .

In regards to activities outside of my work, the word unified continues to apply. Both in activity portions of this week’s colloquium and in our own communications, I have found our internship group to be highly supportive of others’ work and efforts. It is awesome, particularly given that we have never been able to meet in person.

Midway

Happy (belated) Independence Day! I am astounded that it is July. I knew this summer would go quickly, but it is nevertheless baffling to realize just how quickly it is flying by.

I spent this last week working on my third and final lesson plan, which introduces multiwavelength astronomy and highlights the biography of France Córdova, a truly exceptional scientist. I am now realizing how appropriate it was to write this teaching guide around Independence Day, given her contributions to American science, particularly through her work at NASA and the NSF.

The half-way point of the internship means that I will switch focuses slightly. For the next few weeks, I will concentrate on outreach with the Niels Bohr Library and Archives. Though I am not fully sure what this next project will look like, I am excited as the two halves of my internship are very compatible, pulling from the same body of historical and contemporary research (instead of one road ending, I envision it as two parallel paths). I look forward both to putting the finishing touches on the teaching guides, and presenting the fascinating stories I have learned in an outreach project, tasks that will not be exclusively independent!

Broaden

Every time I realize another week is over, I am a little surprised. At the end of week 6, I am very aware the internship is closer to its conclusion than its start. I truly hope to make the most of the next few weeks.

This week was rather eventful, both for intern activities and my projects. The interns meet three times, which is more than the norm. We had a Science Policy Roundtable with panelists from the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The event helped me better understand some of the processes behind science I had never considered before. The interns also met to plan and attend our Virtual Picnic. I was grateful to have the opportunity to meet some of the other interns’ mentors and friends of SPS, and appreciated what they shared about their journeys to where they are now. Both the panel and picnic (and generally my internship as a whole) challenged me to consider different ways of thinking about and supporting physics.

In addition to these intern events, I had many other meetings this week. I attended an AIP All-Staff meeting, which offered me a broader perspective of AIP. I also had a planning meeting for the outreach projects I am developing. I have many ideas I would love to see finished, and hope I can get to most of them (or leave really good notes). The project I decided to start with is an online timeline of events in the Middle East and Europe leading up to Newton’s Laws. I am happy to say it is nearly done. I found it clarifying to return to the topic of physics in the Islamic Golden Age after setting it aside for a few weeks, and am excited that I can represent the topic in a few different ways.

Outside of internship activities, I again returned to the outdoors. This weekend I was able to enjoy some lake views and a beautiful sunset.

Furthermore, I got away from light pollution and did some stargazing. I even tried my hand at astrophotography, which I have included for your enjoyment. (Disclaimer: I am quite new to astrophotography, and didn’t have a tripod because I wanted to travel light. Nevertheless, the Milky Way was far too photogenic to resist).

Diverging

I figure that week seven is not the week to stop my pattern of one-word titles. Week seven, however, was definitely the hardest week to name. I settled on diverging (after considering “fluctuations” and “cosmic”) because week seven involved a lot of movement between projects as well as several delightful diversions.

I have been continuing to tie up loose ends on the teaching guides, making my final changes. I was also able to leave some suggestions on the future direction of the guides as a whole. I am hopeful that the new guides will be easy to implement. In addition to finishing up the guides, I worked on narrating presentations that can be featured online as well as used in classrooms. I also finished a timeline of the developments of the Islamic Golden Age that directly preceded Newton’s laws. Shifting between the above projects, editing, and attending meetings made my week seem a bit disjointed, but it was productive nonetheless.

The intern activities for this week included a resume workshop and a talk from Dr. Mather. This was my first time hearing from Dr. Mather, and greatly appreciated what he had to share, regarding his story, thought experiments, and professional work. Hearing from him was truly a highlight!

Outside of the internship, I went comet watching, as my mentor kindly brought NEOWISE to my attention. I was fortunate enough to have a decent view of NEOWISE from my backyard. The comet is quite spectacular: I encourage everyone who can to make time for comet watching in the next few days.

My final diversion was once again to the mountains (however this week’s adventure was only an evening long). Nevertheless, it was eventful, and include a moose-spotting. I regret to report that I do not have photographic evidence, so you will have to take me at my word and enjoy this delightful public domain image of a moose crossing a road (Photo Credit: John J. Mosesso/NBII).

Virtual

When I accepted the SPS internship initially, I had no conception of a virtual internship. The whole summer has been one of learning how to navigate the remote working situation. Don’t get me wrong, there are some serious positives that I have mentioned in previous blogs (time with family before I move, time outdoors in beautiful Utah, certain flexibilities, and more). Furthermore, I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to still be completing this internship. But there are also difficulties. I mentioned the challenge of doing historical research without physical books in a past blog post, and it still rings true this week. When I did historical research in undergrad, I would often go to my university’s library and leave with a bag or two of books (and I mean full bags) and look through relevant chapters. It is relatively easy to flip through a book and get a sense for it, and I quite simply prefer that to searching through a PDF. I will concede that ctrl + f makes looking for a word or section much easier, and the ease of access is great, but I will take reading a book over an e-book any day.

No online scan can give you the feel or smell of a book, or a full sense of its rarity or age. I was looking forward to walking around bookshelves, taking in a new library. I think all of these things came to head this week because the nature of the outreach I am doing for the Niels Bohr Library and Archives (NBLA) is simply different that many of the interns in this position before me. Last year, the history intern made a physical exhibit, showcasing library materials. I have been considering how to showcase the work I have down and NBLA resources I have used differently. I started out with many ambitions and now have a better sense for what is possible in the next two weeks. I will be focusing in on blogging, and have been working on that for the last week.

So yes, I am now blogging about blogging. I love interdisciplinary approaches, and I think one of the strongest ways to combine history and physics is to bring the narrative of the humanities to the wonder of the universe. So, I am working on a piece that tells a story of the fundamental forces using the extensive digital visual collections of NBLA. Is I conduct my work, I look forward to when I can see the NBLA. I have a better sense of what I want to see if I do make it to Washington D.C., instead of the relative ignorance I would have showed up with on Day 1 had we been in person.

Splash!

We are down to the one-week countdown. It is crazy how quickly this summer has gone!

I have been preparing for the SPS Intern Closing Symposium, writing an abstract and making my presentation slides. It is really cool to look back on the last two months and seeing everything that I have done. Over the course of the summer, I have completed 3 teaching guides and 3 pieces for outreach (with more outreach on my schedule for early next week). I have included my abstract for the Symposium here for anyone who wants to read it.

Week Nine has been an exciting week. It has been full of writing projects in which I get to share what I have learned in history and bring in my perspective from physics. I am also happy to say my first teaching guide is uploaded! You can see it here . I am so happy to see the finished product, and I hope it will be useful to teachers.

This week was also exciting for another reason. My family adopted three ducklings that are now a week old! They easily fit in the hand and are so precious. I have two pictures of them to share.

As the ducklings are so small, it is important to keep them dry and warm. However, they have minds of their own and enjoy splashing around in water. After, they huddle together under the heating lamps to dry off.

I have truly enjoyed witnessing pets make appearances during virtual meetings and sharing pictures of the new ducklings. Our pets were a conversational centerpiece for this week’s intern hangout.

Completion

The SPS internship has been over for one week now. The end snuck up on me, but I am excited for my next step. I am moving this weekend to start a year of service, which will be a change of pace.

I am thrilled to say that all of my teaching guides are now posted online (Making Waves , The Heritage of All Mankind , and On the Shoulders of Giants )! I hope they will be useful to educators. Additionally, my first two blog posts are up on Ex Libris Universum. A Visual Walk Through the Fundementals offers a narrative view of select topics in physics while showcasing the Niels Bohr Library and Archives Visual Collections. My second post, Unifying , is reflective in nature. I will have three more blog posts coming between now and the end of the year, so you can still see posts from me there even though this is my last post here. You can also view the 2020 SPS Final Symposium online.

The end of the internship provided a unique opportunity for reflection. I want to share one skill I was able to developed this summer, because it was unexpected to me: I learned how to gauge the quality of potential projects quickly (though I doubt this can ever be foolproof). The projects I have had freedom with in the past have usually been much larger in duration than a few days (or even weeks). It was great practice to evaluate if an idea had promise early on given the time frame and to get second opinions on how to make an idea work. This type of assessment goes along with flexibility. Some of my ideas did not have enough sources behind them, or were overambitious. It was useful to see what stuck and it was exciting to see those projects develop beyond my expectations. I have only started to develop this skill, but I think it is so useful to consider timing, which I have found to be so essentail—I have wanted to work on physics lesson plans that draw on history before, but I did not have the same platform at the time.

I am grateful for the platform of this internship. Though it was not the internship anyone envisioned, it was wonderful to gain experience in history of physics and to meet everyone I did. I am so appreciative. Thank you to all of you who have followed (and contributed to!) the experiences of the other interns and myself—I hope you have enjoyed hearing from us. It is with gratitude that I end this post, and I look forward what comes next!

PS. I am happy to say that the ducklings, the stars of the Splash! post, are now two weeks old and have moved outside. They have a small pond and are quite content.