McGill Physics Outreach

Space Explorers

Space Explorers is a program that brings hands-on physics activity to elementary schools throughout Montreal. During the pandemic, I led a major revamping of this program in order to create a new set of modules which could be performed at home. Along with the help of two other graduate students, we developed three new modules on gravity, air resistance, and momentum. We spent over one year developing these modules in conjunction with McGill's Faculty of Education and the Office of Science Outreach. The modules are designed to be inquiry-based, and to be accessible to students both at home and within the classroom.

I ran the online version of the Space Explorers program for a bit over a year, and then the in-person program for two years. Over this period, the program reached over 300 kids through 10+ classrooms. I also trained over 30 new volunteers (undergraduates and graduate students) on inquiry-based learning in physics. While I stepped down from the primary coordinator role for this program in 2023, I have continued to help develop new modules (e.g., one related to the 2024 eclipse and another on friction) along with providing training materials both for new volunteers and for new cooordinators.

Photos from running the Craters module.

Science in Space: How to Telescope

Science in Space: How to Telescope is a program in which middle school girls build telescopes in Minecraft over the course of ~10 weeks. The program aims to foster a sense of belonging in physics for students of marganlized genders in this domain. Over the course of the 10 weeks, students learn basic astronomy and telescope concepts, and also hone and develop their problem-solving and team-working skills.

I co-founded this program n 2021 as a collaboration between McGill Physics, Trottier Space Institute, and Dell Technologies/Girls Who Game. Sitting in-between industry and academia, it is unique outreach program. We developed material for the 10 week program throughout Fall 2021/Winter 2022, and piloted the program in Spring of 2022. Since then, we have run the 10 week program another six times in the Montreal area. We were also invited to CIBC headquarters in Toronto to run an ~half day program on Space for girls. I am particularly fond and proud of this program, and would love to chat with anyone who is interested in how it runs, or interested in running a similar program at their University.

You can find out more about Science in Space at our website.

Example telescopes built by students

Other

While I have spent the majority of my outreach dedicated time (over a thousand hours at this point) on Space Explorers and Science in Space , I am also involved in many other outreach initiatives at McGill. I have been a member of the McGill Physics Outreach Committee for five years now, four as a paid outreach coordinator and one as a supervolunteer. I have helped organize many of the large events for the public such as 24hr of Science where we welcomed 700 people to McGill Physics for hands-on activities for children, along with many smaller events.

Astrobites

Astrobites is an international and entirely graduate student-run astronomy news platform. Most articles summarize in bite-sized pieces cutting-edge astronomy papers. Summaries are aimed at undergraduate students, and Astrobites is well known in many astronomy undergraduate classrooms. More information on Astrobites, along with its articles, can be found here.

Writer

I became a writer for Astrobites in Febuary 2021, and was the first writer from a Canadian institution. In order to welcome new writers to the collaboration, your "classic writing rotation" only last for two years. Over this period, I wrote pieces on fast radio bursts, pulsars, searches for extraterrestrial intelligence, and many other topics. My articles can be found here.

Committee Memberships

While I am now longer in the Astrobites writing rotation (my two years is up sadly), I still get to serve on multiple committees for Astrobites. For the last three years, I have served on the Astrobites Hiring Committee and the Astrobites Climate Committee. Recently, I have joined the admin committee. I was also a co-chair of the social media committee for two years, and am now the sole chair. Something new and exciting in this realm are Astrobite reels which you can find on our Instagram.

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Work

I am committed to creating equitable and inclusive environments in physics and astronomy. This commitment drives a lot of the science communication and outreach that I do. For example, there is significant research that shows that attrition in physics can start as young as elementary school. Science in Space was founded, in part, to help mitigate this attrition for students of minority genders in physics.

In addition to the outreach I discussed above, I also served on two committees related to Equity, Diveristy, and Inclusion within the McGill Physics Department from Spring of 2020 to Spring 2021. The goal of the two committees were to create a statement on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the department, and to develop an action plan related to this statement. The final values statement can be found here. I also helped in developing a resource page for McGill students, which can be found here.