UCSD

Young Physicists Program

2009-2010

Important: Every student must submit a completed waiver at the beginning of his or her first meeting.

NEWS:

The first lab has been changed to better teach students about physics. Keep an eye out for further changes - we're revamping the curriculum.
The online registration process has now also been updated.
The Dates are now up for the 2009-2010 school year. Please note the new location for YPP.
Students: Register Online Here
Alison Coil's presentation now available for downloading.

Overview:

The UCSD Young Physicists Program will bring middle school and high school students from across San Diego together with physics students and professors from UCSD on Saturday mornings each month. A typical morning can involve college-level lab activities, interactive demos, lots of interaction with under/graduate students and a presentation by a different guest professor each month touching on cutting-edge research and advanced concepts in physics, as well as reasons for choosing physics as a career and tips on how to make it happen.

Through fun, somewhat simplified, college-level lab projects, with graduate students and undergraduates helping, participants will discover first-hand what college physics involves and be amazed at what they accomplish and learn. UCSD professors will describe exciting research topics in everyday words, giving an idea of how many different concentrations there are in physics and how important physics is in the world. Fun experiments from our sizeable Interactive Lecture Demo collection will not just illustrate the sort of surprises that Nature has to offer, but will also be available for close-up inspection and experimentation. It will also be possible to get help and advice for science fair projects. For your benefit, students, please read through the instructions for the lab before the meeting. You may not understand a lot of what is there, depending on your level of experience, but you will learn more in the lab if you read ahead (even if only in the car on the way to the meeting).

Useful Q&A (please read).

Directions:

We meet from 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM in the 1A/1B Labs on the 2nd floor of Mayer Hall - on the York Hall side of the building.
The lab is at the south side of the building, on the (outdoor) 2nd floor.
Park in the lot at the intersection of Scholars Dr S and Revelle College Dr.

Dates:

October 10	Lab: Measurements Demo: Circles, shadows, pendulums and more - measurements you can do at home. Guest professor: Prof. Hans Paar	volunteer sign-up sheet
November 7	Lab: Quirky Work and Synergizing with Energy Energy is all around us: electricity, gasoline, the sun... but what is it, and can we turn it into something useful? Demo: Bottle Rocket and Smashing Tomatoes Guest professor: TBA	volunteer sign-up sheet
December 5	Lab: Momentum conservation - why the fixation? Demo: TBA	volunteer sign-up sheet
January 9	Lab: TBA	volunteer sign-up sheet
February 6	Lab: TBA	volunteer sign-up sheet
March 13	Lab: TBA	volunteer sign-up sheet
April 10	Lab: TBA	volunteer sign-up sheet
May 15	Lab: TBA	volunteer sign-up sheet

More:

Physics Dept, Physics Demos, YPP Photos, The 1 Labs, Previous Presentations, The Archive

Contact:

Chris Palmer or Yaniv Rosen - ucsd.ypp@gmail.com - (650) 793 4952 (Yaniv's phone)
(please email unless you need an immediate response - e.g., directions)

Last updated: Sept 29, 2009