Noah Johnson, 2021 SPS SOCK (Science Outreach Catalyst Kit) Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: New York University

Hello everyone! My name is Noah, and I am the SOCK intern for summer 2021! I am a huge advocate of science education and outreach so having the opportunity to develop awesome demonstration kits for students of all ages is super exciting. I spent 2.5 years at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City and I loved every second of it, so I know how to teach kids (and people of all ages really) about science and I can’t wait to be contributing to more of that this summer. I’m a rising junior at NYU studying physics with a minor in education and the goal to become a science educator after graduation.

When I’m not studying you can often find me reading, playing video games, learning about animals, trying to learn new instruments, cooking, and baking. I love browsing new recipes and trying out different styles of bread. So far my favorite loaf I’ve made has to be the rosemary focaccia.

I can’t wait to work with everyone at SPS this summer!

Internship

Host: Society of Physics Students

Project

Abstract

Outreach is a fundamental part of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) and the most common activity chapters do. Being the SOCK Intern, my responsibilities not only covered the SOCK program, but a whole range of outreach. In this talk I will outline new physics demonstrations for students of all ages, my work around the acoustic based SOCK (expanded) and the Psi* Program, which formally joined SPS as part of the outreach toolkit. We will go over other side projects as well, including physics jeopardies and running the SPS Demo Competition.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: I’m Going on an Adventure!

“Engage” - Captain Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

The first week of the 2021 SPS SOCK Internship is underway, and I couldn’t be more excited for the rest of the summer. Not to say that this first week hasn’t been without any hitches, but the future is very exciting and this past week has laid down the foundations.

First and foremost, I suppose I should explain what exactly I will be doing this summer. SOCK stands for Science Outreach Catalyst Kits which have a number of really awesome science demos packaged in them. The idea is for SPS chapters to use them as events for themselves but also outreach events and the general public. I’m going to be adding to last year’s acoustic based sock, which Brad and I have a pretty awesome name idea for (I’m going to keep that under wraps for now). Another major part of my job, which I’m probably most excited for, is designing cool, engaging, and cheap physics demos for students of all ages. I’ve already drafted 2.5 of them, but I’m expecting a lot of edits and feedback. The final part of my summer will be working on a new outreach event called Psi* (Psi Star). The idea for that is to integrate technologies that are important in physics and apply them to real world problems and beyond. There are a lot of really cool ideas floating around about the program, but first we have to take the ideas that have already been made concrete by the creator (Randy Tagg, a professor at UC Denver) and get those into writing. I’m hoping that after the internship is over I might still be able to help out on the project, depending on how much we get done this summer. I can really see some incredible potential in Psi*.

The week wasn’t without it’s hiccups though. Working from home is far from ideal, and even though I’ve been doing it for over a year it’s still very taxing mentally. Staying motivated to keep working for 7-8 hours a day is exhausting, and sometimes I just can’t be as productive as I would like. It’s so easy to take a break and then play with my cat for half an hour. I also have to do so much brainstorming and coming up with ideas and how to convey sometimes very complex concepts in a way for elementary school students to understand, it can give me a headache at the end of the day. As much as it’s a struggle, it’s also a challenge I can rise up to and overcome. Also it’s very mentally stimulating which, unlike some other jobs I’ve had in the past, is very welcome.

I’ve also started to get to know some of the other interns and they are all wonderful. We watched Ant-Man last Friday and had some good laughs over the “quantum realm” and all the other physics Marvel decided to throw in to explain the movie. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with them more, but also sad we aren’t in person to meet them in real life. We do all plan to go to the Phys-Con 2022 though, so we’ll get to meet there!

If I had to summarize the first week, I’d say that we’re off to a great start, but there’s still a lot to get used to and to work on. It’s early on in the summer and this internship is a marathon, not a sprint. I think next week I’ll be much more in the groove with my day to day tasks and how I can effectively use my time. So until next week!

Live Long and Prosper,

Week 2: Trying to Find the Groove

“Do or do not, there is no try” - Jedi Master Yoda

I feel that very famous quote from Yoda sums up this week pretty well. When I did, I did very well and was very productive and got a lot of great stuff done. But sometimes I tried, but you can’t just try, and so I fell to the “dark side” and did not. I’m not sure exactly why I had those days, but I can guess that it was just general exhaustion. Meetings take a surprising amount of energy out of you, but I can guess that most people reading this blog know that. But what’s strange is that when I have meetings it’s very much a deadline that I can achieve and work towards. I find that days when I have meetings I work more, have more energy, and feel better about myself. Also brainstorming sessions are a great way to just feel productive and really flesh out ideas, which conveniently leads me to my next talking point.

I’m ecstatic about Psi*, the program that is supposed to be not my primary focus and revolves around different physics technologies and problems humans face in the world. There are a number of activities that go along with it, the first one being given a set of technologies from a deck, a problem humans have, and then being tasked to solve it with the technologies given. Everything about this project makes me excited. I can just feel how much potential this has to be huge not only to college students, but also high school students. It is just super exciting and I’m hoping I can really help work on it a fair amount throughout the summer and possibly even after the internship is over.

In regards to my other duties, they’re coming along. I wrote a few more demo drafts this week, made a video for my first demo, brainstormed a number of SOCK ideas and demos, and got to build and play around with an oscilloscope from the SOCK last year. It was generally productive, but I didn’t necessarily feel like I made any major breakthroughs or massive progress. Just general trudging along.

I did get to spend a good amount of time with the other interns this week and that was great fun. We played a lot of skribbl.io which was a lot of fun, but we keep forgetting to take screenshots of our events. Everyone is super nice and friendly and as much as I’m sad we don’t get to meet in person, it’ll just make PhysCon 2022 that much more exciting when we do finally all get to meet in person.

I think next week I’m going to try to make a very regimented schedule to keep myself focused and on track, and by setting goals and deadlines for myself I can work towards those everyday. I’m hoping that will keep me on the “do” track rather than the “do not” track that I’ve sometimes fallen into. But I’ll let you all know how that goes for me next week!

May the force be with you,

Week 3: 72 Mousetraps, 100 Ping Pong Balls, and 1 Gallon of Cornstarch, Oh My!

“Laugh it up, fuzzball” - Han Solo

This week I would say was a pretty good week. Lots of meetings, lots of brainstorming, and a lot of mail! I can really start to feel the pace picking up and I don’t have any shortage of work. Some of my demos are finally nearing completion which is super nice to see, but I still have to make the videos and do a number of just general edits. I’ve found that Taylor Swift is great music to edit my demos to, so now my Spotify is all Taylor Swift (“No Body No Crime” is my current favorite song of hers at the moment).

The SOCK project is also finally picking up! Brad and I had talked about it before, but we finally finalized a few demos we’re going to write for the SOCK which is really exciting. We met with the outreach coordinator at the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), and she approved the main focus of this year which will be adding a lot of voice and speech demos to last year’s SOCK. Luckily my dad does research on this exact stuff so I’ve already consulted him about how to demonstrate vocal folds and I have a few ideas. I’m super excited to get working on that and writing up those demos.

Probably one of my favorite things about this internship is all the random packages and materials I get. As you can probably tell from the title of the blog, early this week I got 72 mousetraps, 100 ping pong balls, and 1 gallon of cornstarch. Somehow, my entire job is to mess around with all this stuff and then record myself messing around with it. I nearly lost a finger trying to set up the mousetraps though so I’m going to have to re-evaluate my approach to those. I also got roughly 2 yards of spandex, a bunch of electrical stuff that intimidates me but I have to learn to solder for, and also 22 spherical cow stickers. My goal this upcoming week is to get a bunch of videos made for the demos so I can finish those up and make use of all the materials I’ve gotten.

And as much fun as this week has been, I was exhausted by the time Friday rolled around. Thursday and Friday felt super slow in terms of how much I was able to get done. I planned more this week what I was going to do each day which definitely helped, but I think I have to plan it out even more than I was doing. Rather than just a checklist, actually put in my calendar what I’ll be doing when so I can hold myself accountable.

I also got my bucket hat! Brad sent all of the interns bucket hats and I think at this point we all have gotten them. I’ve been wearing mine all the time and it’s a reminder of how lucky I am to be working on all of this but also that I shouldn’t take myself too seriously. Until next week!

Auf Wedersehen!

Week 4: Write, Edit, Repeat

“I’ve got a jar of dirt!” - Captain Jack Sparrow

Not only have I got a jar of dirt, I’ve got all sorts of materials for demos. From 2 yards of spandex and a handful of marbles to wire and circuitry, I’ve certainly got my hands full of materials to juggle around. Despite all the stuff I have to keep track of, this week has felt like a productive and effective week. I;ve made a lot of great progress with my 4 demo write-ups and I just have one more round of revisions to go and I need to record some videos and then they’re ready to go up on the internet! It finally feels like I’ve made some real progress. Nearing completion of these demos also makes me feel more free to explore new demo ideas that I have and to really delve into developing the SOCK for this year.

I had a really great meeting with Casey, the NIST intern, about outreach and how to effectively reach students of all ages. It was super awesome to see how our internships collided and I was really honored and humbled that she reached out to me as a reliable voice on science communication and outreach. We also met with John Mather, a Nobel Prize Laureate for discovering the CMB, this week which was so awesome. I never would have expected to meet John Mather in my lifetime, let alone to have him tell me the question I asked was a good one. I’m sure a lot of the other interns felt the same way.

In regards to hardships this week, Wednesday was a doozy. I woke up with a terrible headache and it was a struggle to get any good work done that day. I always try my best to do my best work, but Wednesday was just really difficult to be productive. We all have those days, and luckily I didn’t have any meetings or deadlines but nonetheless it was still the low point of my week.

But on a happier note, I’m feeling great. I finally feel at home in the working environment, I have a lot of great tools and techniques to help me write, edit, and create awesome demos, and I just know this week is gonna be a good one. I’m gonna have the chance to make a lot of demo videos and start work on new demos! I’m feeling good, I’m feeling optimistic, and I’ll see you next week. Until then!

Tchüss!

Week 5: A Week of Life Skills

“This is either madness, or brilliance” “It’s remarkable how often those two traits coincide” - Will Turner and Jack Sparrow

This week was a long, hectic, and weirdly slow week, but overall some great progress was made. To start off, the reason it was slow was because I was in the thick of looking for an apartment in NYC (which, as it turns out, is no easy task). Luckily, I got a great place so that stress is relieved and I can go back to putting all my focus into this job.

In other news, I learned to solder this week! Brad gave me a one-on-one lesson at 8:30 AM and I successfully made a buzzer buzz. Even though it’s a fairly small accomplishment, it still felt like a really nice milestone. It’s also a very good life skill to have.

Some great progress was also made on the demos! I recorded and edited a number of videos and made a lot of great edits with great feedback from both Brad and Mikayla. I also uploaded my first demo to the internet, which feels so great. I’m so glad to finally get a demo out there. You can go check out “Straw Landing” under the demonstration page on the SPS website!

There isn’t very much to report this week, but next week I think I’ll finish a couple other demos, so the future looks bright. Until next week!

Ciao!

Week 6: Demos Galore

“Tea, Earl Grey, Hot” - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

This past week has been a really great and productive week (with a lot of tea as well). A quick summary includes publishing 3 more demos (videos still in progress but nearly done), getting a lot of good work done on the SOCK demos, and on top of that going to a great event on Thursday where I got to hang out with all the other interns and hear Rush Holt speak!

The 3 demos I completed are “Reflection and Refraction” which last year’s intern, Holly Fortener, created the first draft for. I also published “Racing Cylinders” and “Rodent Reactors”, all of which you can find on the SPS Demonstrations page! I’m also working on one more demo that’s focused on taking pictures of the night sky with only your cell phone and making the pictures really great with just a bit of coding. I’m hoping to be done with the majority of that demo by the end of the week, but it’s hard to get pictures of the night sky when the sky is cloudy every night.

I’ve focused most of this internship so far on demos, which isn’t a problem, but I’m the SOCK intern so my focus is going to shift much more towards the SOCK for the next few weeks. Like I mentioned previously, we’re moving forward with one demo addition, but there are at least 2 more demos we would really like to add. That is going to be my primary focus this week.

I can’t believe we’ve already completed half of the summer internship. So much has happened but I know there is so much more I still want to do. But for now, head down and keep working. Until next week!

Qapla’! (Goodbye in Klingon)

Week 7: Zoom in on SOCKs

“Never tell me the odds” - Han Solo

This past week was a very productive week! Even though nothing new was published, I got my head down and focused on the SOCK. I wrote 4 demo drafts for some really cool and awesome demos all relating to acoustics and Brad has been really helpful with edits and drafts the whole way through. It’s somehow nearing the end of the summer so it’s hammer time!

With just a few weeks remaining, I can’t believe the summer has flown by so fast. So far this summer has been a fantastic experience and I’ve been able to meet so many amazing people. There are already possible opportunities popping up for next summer which is crazy.

I got to hang out with other interns again this week and we had a lot of fun playing some more jackbox games. Those are definitely becoming a fan favorite. We also had a professional development meeting and got to learn how to effectively create non-academic resumes, which for someone who does not want to go into academia, was very helpful.

This next week proves to be a tricky one, as I’m travelling to visit my extended family for the first time since covid but I also have to record a number of videos. It is totally doable (I brought all the materials I need), but it won’t necessarily be a walk in the park. But until next week!

Arrivederci!

Week 8: So Many Demo Videos

“Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate” - Captain Jack Sparrow

This week was a crazy week but a good week. I spent most of it on vacation in rural Pennsylvania which was super nice and relaxing, but I still got some good work done. 3 more SOCK demo write ups were finished and the videos are being made and edited now. We also put together the SPS demo competition video! It’s up now and you can watch it here and vote for your favorite demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYAwJRhh-ms&ab_channel=SPSNational

This week I did break my pinky on a hike, so that was a bit of a low point, but other than that things are really ramping and wrapping up! I’ve still got more work to do, but this summer has flown by and has been an amazing experience. Until next week!

Adeus!

Week 9: 1/3 of a Mile

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us” - Gandalf

And oh how quickly the time has flown. I can hardly believe Week 9 is done and we’re starting the last and final week of this amazing adventure. This past week has been awesome and we are wrapping up and finalizing so many things. Somehow it’s all coming together.

In terms of the SOCK, we finished all of the demos we are most likely going to get done in time (there is another one that is being drafted at the moment but I am unsure if we’ll have enough time to fully finish that). Otherwise the SOCK is looking very good. We ordered all of the materials last week as well which included a lot of latex tubing. And by a lot of latex tubing I mean a third of a mile of latex tubing. We also bought 200 7" foam balls, which is a lot of foam balls. So it was a fun week last week.

I also got the honor to introduce the SPS Demo Competition video (found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYAwJRhh-ms ) to the AAPT summer meeting this year! It was really fun to be behind the scenes at a conference and see how it all works. I can’t wait until the AAPT winter meeting and PhysCon 2022!

Some interns and I also got together on Friday night and watched a movie which was a lot of fun. It was a particularly bad movie but it was also hilarious and so we all had a good laugh over that.

This upcoming week is the last week which is absolutely mental. Brad wasn’t kidding when he said the first half goes slowly then as soon as you hit July 4th it goes by in a blink. I moved into my new apartment this week too so that has been a crazy time as well. Until next time!

Adjö!

Week 10: All Good Things Must End

“The Force will be with you. Always.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi

How is it the end? I guess we’ll never know. All I know is that this past week has been one of the most hectic in my life. Not only did I move into my new apartment, but I also had to finish everything to do with this internship. From finalizing demos, publishing web pages, making my final presentation, and having meetings on meetings, it was all wrapping up. It was such a surreal week I don’t even know if it was real, but on Friday we had the final SPS Intern Symposium which went very well (except when I uploaded my powerpoint to the google drive it caused a formatting error which caught me off guard). But other than that slight hiccup I felt good about my presentation and it was so awesome to see what everyone else did as well. If you want to watch the symposium it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1eD9dOdhGM&ab_channel=SPSNational

I want to take some time to reflect on this summer as well, considering this is my last blog posting. Brad was right when he said that June feels like a week, July feels like a few days, and August feels like a few hours. The speed at which this summer has zipped by has been unreal and I still feel like there is so much more I can do and so much I wanted to do but didn’t get to do. That first month felt like I was really trying to get my bearings and so I feel like I lost out on some valuable time to get a lot of awesome stuff done, but regardless I did get a lot done and I definitely feel as though I contributed.

I would also say that this internship has really solidified my path to continue in physics education or STEM education in some regard. I still have a while left in college, but as I start to look for more opportunities, I am going to pursue one’s where I get to teach and educate people.

And lastly, I want to thank everyone. To all my fellow interns, thank you for being awesome and for all the awesome times we’ve had, even if only virtually, over this summer. I can’t wait to meet you all at PhysCon 2022! I also want to thank Kayla and Mikayla for organizing all of this and making sure it ran smoothly. The summer was absolutely fantastic all thanks to both of you. And lastly I want to thank Brad, my mentor. Brad has been absolutely wonderful to work with. Somehow he is working essentially two jobs for SPS, and he still has time to work with me. And even on my off days or his off days, he was always there to support me and make sure I had everything I needed (maybe it’s all the coffee he drinks). He always greeted me with a smile, asked how I was doing, and made sure I knew exactly what needed to be done. Brad really made this summer so special and has really helped me grow and learn as a person. So Brad, thank you. Until the next chapter of life!

Live long and prosper,