Emily Pavasars, 2023 SPS SOCK (Science Outreach Catalyst Kit) Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Valparaiso University

Hello! My name is Emily Pavasars, and I am the SOCK intern for the summer of 2023! I am thrilled to dive into the world of Science Outreach and Public Education. I love teaching others about the wonders of science and learning more about science myself. I have participated in many outreach events on my college campus, so I have experience in teaching others about science. I am a rising senior physics major at Valparaiso University with minors in mathematics and education.

Outside of the physics world, you can find me playing video games, reading, playing D&D, and spending time with friends. In my most recent D&D campaign, I am playing a cleric!

I am excited to work hard this summer, get to know everyone at SPS, and explore DC!

Internship

Host: American Institute of Physics

Project

Abstract

This talk will outline my summer of outreach: representing SPS and Sigma Pi Sigma at Astronomy on the Mall and the development of the 2023 Science Outreach Catalyst Kit (SOCK). With a theme of Eclipses, there are three central demonstrations accompanied by write ups and instructional videos within the SOCK. Other resources include materials to help SPS chapters set up an effective outreach table for the 2023 and 2024 eclipses and educate their members and the public. The physics and astronomy jeopardies are designed to include all ten federation societies under AIP to show the diversity of interests in the Physical Sciences community. The goal of the SOCK internship is to advance outreach resources in Physics and Astronomy and this talk will demonstrate how this was accomplished in the summer of 2023!

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: We made it!!!

Hello everyone!! My name is Emily Pavasars and I am the SOCK intern for the summer! Let me introduce myself before I get started on how my week went. I am a rising senior at Valparaiso University majoring in Physics with minors in Math and Education. I am from Diamond Bar, California which is in between LA and Disneyland. I love the beach, playing video games and spending time with my friends.

Ok, enough about me. Let me tell you about my week!

Sunday was a long travel day but everyone made it in one piece. I spent most of Monday settling in, putting away clothes and getting my room (mostly ;) organized). For dinner, all the interns went out to Tonic to get to know each other and celebrate Hannah’s birthday. It was a blast!

Tuesday was orientation day! This was an amazing day full of converstaion and professional development. We had professional photographers take our headshots. I have never felt cooler in my life. I also had my first meeting with Brad and Mikayla to determine the plan for the summer.

Wednesday and Thursday I got settled in at the office and I worked from my dorm on Friday. I spent most of this week brainstorming demonstration ideas and planning my Science Outreach Catalyst Kit or SOCK!

Wednesday evening a lot of the interns went to the National Mall to hang out and debrief from the first day of work at our assignments. It was a mixed bag of success as some people’s paperwork hadn’t been fully processsed quite yet but we were all excited to start working.

I was invited to attend a mini concert at the Smithsonian of American History put on by students of the National Orchestra Institute. They played on Stradivarius instruments and did an absoultely wonderful job. That evening I went to Union Market with MJ, Julia, Tiffany and Eva. The food was delicious!

Saturday was Zoo day! Hannah, Jenna, Daniil, MJ and I all went to the zoo! We stopped by Rose Ave Bakery for some breakfast and then went and saw all the adorable animals. I will attach my favorite pictures below.

That was my week in a nutshell!

Till next week!

Week 2: Getting Settled

Welcome to the end of week 2! I can not believe how fast this summer seems to be going since we are already 1/5 of the way through. This weekly recap is little more relaxed but still full of fun activites.

Starting with my birthday!!! Last Sunday (06/04) was my 21st birthday! Being away from home on your birthday takes some getting used to but the other interns made it a fun day regardless. We went to Tonic (like with Hannah’s birthday) and I had a frozen lime margarita for my first drink. After dinner, I played D&D with some of my friends from Valpo. On Tuesday, Melissa and I went to the Mead Center for American Theater with Jack Hehn. We saw a play called Exclusion. The story is about an Asian-American historian and writer who sells her book on the Chinese Exclusion Act to Hollywood to become a TV show. The producer, eventually, takes over the project and makes the show something it is not. Ultimately, Katie (the main character) is able to get her story out. It was a thought provoking play and I learned a bit more about the Chinese Exclusion Act. Friday, Jenna, Hannah, Ruthie, Tiffany, Daniil and I went to see the Washington City Ballet. The performance was absolutely beautiful. Our favorite acts were the more modern ballet pieces. Then Saturday, MJ, Daniil and I went to the National Museum of American History. Around 1pm MJ and I headed home and Daniil continued sight seeing. Later that evening, MJ and I watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian to round off one of many museum trips we are likely to make this summer.

This week I worked on finalizing what goes in my SOCK, preparing materials for Astronomy on the Mall and creating a shirt for all the interns and mentors to have as a reminder of this summer! If you are reading this and are in the DC area come to Astronomy on the Mall!! It is happening on June 24th at the National Mall and is sure to be a blast! Also through out this week, the East Coast got covered in smoke from the wildfires happening in Canda. This limited activities outside for our safety.

I had a blast this week getting fully settled in here in DC.

Till next week!

Week 3: Mix and Mingle

Welcome to the end of week 3! I definitely need to take more pictures because I don’t have a lot of good ones for this week.

The highlights of this week definitely are the ExCom mixer and the National Orchestra Institue (NOI) performance. I have never been to a mixer before so I was a little nervous but it turned out really well. I loved meeting new people and learning how they have used physics in different ways than pure research. There were a couple past SPS interns there so it was interesting to hear their experiences and what they are doing now.

The NOI performance was beautiful. They played three pieces by Gerswhin: The Cuban Overture, Second Rhapsody and, of course, Rhapsody in Blue. Then a piece called Dreamwaltzes by Steven Stucky and 1920/2019 by Joan Tower. The Gerswhin pieces were special because they were as close to the original scores as possible. Scholars worked very hard to piece together from different sources what Gerswhin originally wrote for these pieces. The Dreamwaltzes piece was a more modern, chaotic piece. 1920/2019 was written to honor women’s contributions to the music world and the composer Joan Tower was there! She spoke about her journey and her piece.

This week I continued to work on the SOCK! I wrote my first demo writeup and started on some information cards that will be included in the kit. I continued to prepare for Astronomy on the Mall which is next Saturday!! If you are in the DC area, please stop by! Brad, Mikayla and I had a meeting to discuss the demos that we will be having. We will review them again this week and then I will teach the interns so we are all prepared.

Till next week!

Week 4: Astronomy on the Mall!!

Welcome to the end of crunch week (aka Week 4)!! This week was a little crazy but was super fun!

Starting with last Sunday, a couple of interns and I went to the Georgetown Flea Market and then to Good Stuff (a burger place). I spent a little bit too much time out in the heat and sun and got sunburnt. (Whoops!) However, the walk was quite beautiful. I also started my second D&D campaign of the summer with my physics friends from Valpo and that was a blast! I can’t wait to see how the campaign turns out.

We had Monday off so the interns decided to hold a potluck! It was Italian themed and the food was delicious! MJ made some delicious garlic bread. Great job cooking everyone! Tuesday evening a group of us headed out to Tonic for some live jazz and dinner. I really enjoyed the live music. Wednesday was a relaxed work day and the highlight was definitely the turtle Hannah and I saw before getting on the bus to the Metro.

Thursday was an exciting day at the office since almost all of the interns were at ACP to have lunch and hear a talk from John Mather! He is a very sweet and humble scientist who has made great contributions to our knowlwedge through projects like COBE and JWST. The other interns were very helpful in bringing back demos for Astronomy on the Mall. We made an interesting crew on the Metro with our bags of stuff. That evening some of us watched Forbidden Planet whihc is John Mather’s favortie space movie.

Friday was another relaxed work day but after work all the interns gathered in my room for Demo Show and Tell! All the interns who were able to go to Astronomy on the Mall needed to be trained on the demonstrations for the event. Everyone had fun playing with all the demos while I explained the physics behind our demos and how I wanted people to present them! After Demo Show and Tell, a group of us walked down to the National Mall and saw the monuments at night! It was very humid but the monuments were beautiful.

Saturday was the big day!! I arranged a late lunch/early dinner and then we headed out at 4:15 for Astronomy on the Mall! We all wore our SPS shirts and gathered all the demos so I am sure we looked a little crazy on the Metro heading over. Once we got there, we set up our tables and got ourselves organized. The only demo we weren’t able to use was the bubbles because we got moved inside due to the possibility of rain. Honestly, once the people showed up it’s a little bit of a blur. I spent most of my time at the Fabric of the Universe Demo chasing down marbles. This demo is a gravity well. Lots of museums have them to collect quarters in a fun way! Thank you to Gary White, Rachel Ives and her husband for providing real adult moral support!

Astronomy on the Mall was so fun to plan and was an amazing event to attend. I am super grateful to have had the opportunity to try my hand at planning an outreach event. Thank you to all the other interns for helping me with this event. It wouldn’t have been possible without you! (Pro-tip: bring extra snacks and waters. You will want them.)

Till next week!

Week 5: Rest and Family (Pt. 1)

Welcome to the end of Week 5! I can not believe that we are halfway through.

This work week was mostly spent shifting focus from Astronomy on the Mall to my other duties. I worked on some demo writeups for the SOCK and some Physics Jeopardy! I spent the beginning of this week recovering from Astronomy on the Mall.

Monday, a group of interns went to Astronomy on Tap at DC9 which was awesome! The talks were about heliophysics, exoplanets, general relativity and black holes and the speakers did an amazing job. Tuesday evening a few of us spent an evening in and just chatted about our work and life. Wednesday is another D&D night with some college friends so I enjoyed that.

Thursday, my family arrived! My family is visiting for a week to enjoy DC during the 4th of July. I met them at the airport and helped them get settled at their Air BnB. We got dinner together at a cute little place in Old Town Alexandria. Friday, the Capitol Hill intern took us on a wonderful tour of the Capitol! We got to see where Ruthie works along with the Capitol itself. (You crushed it Ruthie!). I met my family afterwards and took them to Tonic where we had a delicious dinner then planned out some activities for the rest of the week they are here. On Saturday, my family and I went to the Bible Museum. I was very impressed by this museum. They had a ton of interactive exhibits and it wasn’t just focused on the history of the Bible. I really loved the walk through exhibit focused on the Old Testament. Afterwards, we went to Union Station for a late lunch and walked down to Capitol Hill to see the Capitol, Supreme Court and Library of Congress. Finally, we came back to Foggy-Bottom and stopped by Captain Cookie for a much deserved sweet treat. It poured as we walked back to the metro for them and my dorm for me. I will talk more about their visit next week. :)

Till next week!

Week 6: Family Time (Pt. 2)

Welcome to the end of Week 6?! Time is flying by.

Picking up where I left off last week, my family was here through Thursday! On Sunday, we went to breakfast at a yummy cafe then to churc near their Airbnb. After lunch and our afternoon nap, we headed off to Arlington Cemetery. We took the bus tour and were able to watch the changing of the guard. It is a beautiful cemetery and shed light on the amount of lives lost to war in our country. Monday was a packed day. We went to Archives in the morning and saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Then we headed to the museum of Natural History and spent a couple hours there. We headed back to my room for a quick dinner and nap if needed then we were off to watch baseball with all the other interns! It was the DC Nationals vs. the Cincinnati Reds. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are a Reds fan), the Nationals lost but the fireworks after the game were amazing anyways. Tuesday was the 4th of July! We went to breakfast at Ted’s Bulletin with some of my mom’s east coast friends then went to the parade by the Archives. After the parade, we went to the National Gallery of Art. We were pretty hungry after the Art Gallery so we headed back to my room again to eat some dinner and rest until we headed to the National Mall for the fireworks! We managed to snag good seats near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. We played cards until the fireworks began and then enjoyed the beautiful display. On Wednesday, we explored the Botanical Gardens and the National Mall. We saw the World War 2 Memorial, MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Afterwards, we headed back to their Airbnb and got dinner. It wsa really wonderful to have them here for a time.

Thursday and Friday, I worked on some demo writeups to go in the SOCK and went to a reflective listening workshop run by Jenna! I also worked a bit on Saturday to make up for the short week. Saturday afternoon, Janessa, Eva, Hannah, Brynn and I headed to Kramers. It’s a very cute bookstore/restrauant. I got the first book from the Mistborn series. Then MJ and I hung out for a bit.

Till next week!

Week 7: Kayaking on the Potomac

Welcome to the end of week 7! I did not do much this week so this will be a short blog.

Work went smoothly this week. I have officially completed a demo write up! I have two others that are on second drafts and should be finished in the next week. I started filming the demo videos and will begin editing them this next week. The SOCK is coming along smoothly as most of my packages have arrived! The box is finished and my custom stickers have arrived! I will likely begin putting them together this next week.

As for fun activities, the highlight of my week was kayaking on the Potomac with Jenna, Hannah and Devin. We were able to kayaking all the way down by the Lincoln Memorial. It was quite warm but we were able to stay cool by staying in the shade. MJ and I have been hard at work creating a table top role playing game (TTRPG) one shot for some of the other interns which we will play today! It is, of course, space themed with flavors of DC inspiration. I will write about the results of the adventure next week. It’s been warm again here in DC so I spent a lot of time playing video games inside but I will try to make to a museum some time this next week.

Oh and my family got a new cat so enjoy some cute cat pictures.

Till next week!

Week 8: Filming Videos

Welcome to the end of Week 8! I spent a lot of time editing videos this week.

Work this week consisted of filming and editing videos, wrapping up demo write ups and making a new memory shirt! It was a fun experience learning how to film demo videos and edit them. I was betrayed by a program I was using because it was only AFTER I had fully edited the video did it tell me I had to pay for the program. The other option was a watermark but it was massive across the screen. So I had to go looking for another program to edit the videos. Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult to find another functional program. I was able to edit two videos this week and will finish the third this next week! I have finished all the write ups for the SOCK so everything is slowly falling into place!

Starting the fun off strong with the TTRPG MJ and I created, we had our first session last Sunday! Hannah, Ruthie, Tiffany, Brynn and Eva made up our crew while MJ and I managed the world and NPCs. It was an awesome first dive into TTRPGs for most of our players and we will continue the adventure later this next week. Brynn, Tiffany and I went to happy hour at Tonic on Wednesday and got interviewed by some rogue GW students for one of their classes. They wanted to know Gen Z’s opinions on what they look for in a presidential candidate. Saturday, a group of us went to brunch at Rakuya and it was delicious! That afternoon, Hannah and I continued watching Too Hot to Handle then Jenna, Hannah and I went to the Georgetown waterfront to watch the sunset. It was a fun and relaxing week.

Till next week!

Week 9: Where Has The Time Gone?

Welcome to the end of Week 9! This was the last real full week of work since our work week ends with our presentations next week.

The goal of work this week was to wrap up all the projects I had for the summer and create my final presentation. I have a rough draft of my final presentation and will make the final edits this week. The end of the green line on the metro closed down for maintainence but I still needed to pack my kits so I braved the metro and bus connections. Ultimately, it wasn’t that bad of a trip and it actually cut down on the cost. I will be going in again this Monday to finish packing my SOCKs and clean up my office.

As for fun things, Hannah, Jenna and I went to the African-American History museum last Sunday. It was a beautiful museum and I learned a lot. My favorite exhibit was an interactive exhibit where people could record their stories and experiences. There were 3 of these recording booths and the booth had prompts for people to respond to. Our TTRPG group also managed to complete our game this week! It was chaos incarnate but the party managed to secure the cure with no fatalities, reunite Danny and Dani, and made some new friends along the way. On Friday, we had our NIST tour! Gizem very kindly organized this tour for us and it was amazing tour! NIST is incredible organization that focuses on standards for the US Department of Customs. There are so many departments and focuses in NIST that the tour itself was a little overwhelming but it was incredibly interesting. On Saturday, a group of us went to a piano bar to watch dueling pianos! We had a ton of fun singing along and people watching.

It is bittersweet writing this blog. I can’t believe that there is only one more week of this incredible internship experience.

Till next week!

Week 10: Goodbye!

Welcome to the end of Week 10 and the end of the internship! This internship has been an absolute blast!

Work this week was very focused on getting all the loose ends tied up. I packed 100 SOCKS on Monday and Wednesday and then cleaned up my office space at ACP. Wednesday was my last day at ACP. :( I created, refined and gave my final presentation. We had a rehearsal day on Thursday so that we could get feedback from Brad, Mikayla and Kayla along with the other interns. It was also helpful to get our nerves out presenting the day before our actual presentation. After rehearsal, I uploaded all my demos, the Physics Jeopardies I created and updated the SOCK page so those resources are all live now! Thursday evening the other interns came over to my room to help pack up the stuff that belonged to SPS and we all wrote some advice for future interns to find. Then, Friday was the big day! Everyone did a fantastic job presenting and I loved getting to hear about what everyone did this summer in more detail.

As for the fun things of this last week...

On Sunday, Tiffany, Ruthie and I went window shopping down in Georgetown. The shops were definitely out of my price range but it was fun to look at the clothes and get inspiration for updating my wardrobe in the near future. Monday, a group of us headed down to the national mall one last time to just hang out and chat. We were minorly harassed by a local rat but we survived. On Tuesday, I headed to the mall to pick up a gift for Brad as his birthday was on Wednesday and the other interns and I planned to surprise him with a gift and cake on our rehearsal presentation day. Thursday, we headed to Tonic for one lasy group dinner and had a blast! Friday was presentation day and we had a ton of fun signing each others books after all of our presentations were done. Later that evening a group of us went watch the sunset at the National Mall one last time then we all got together to reminisce afterwards. Saturday was travel day! I packed up all my stuff and left room 503 at Philip Amsterdam Hall for the last time and then headed home! Now it’s Sunday and I am home in California enjoying my family and writing my last blog!

Thank you SPS for this incredible opportunity and for bringing together all the amazing interns. Thank you Brad and Mikayla for being my mentors this summer. You are both incredible people and I will miss you guys so much!

To the other interns: Thank you for an incredible summer. You guys truly made this summer. You are all going to go do amazing things in the future and I will miss you all so much!

Thank you to those who have read these blogs all summer!