It's Spring, It's USU Physics Day at Lagoon

In what has become a spring rite of passage for hosts of Intermountain teens, some 7,000 budding scientists will descend on Davis County’s Lagoon amusement park for Utah State University’s Physics Day, Friday, May 16. Now in its 19th year, the day-long extravaganza features hands-on learning, academic competition and fun.

In the course of the day, middle and high school science students from Utah and surrounding states will transform northern Utah’s überplayground into a giant laboratory to explore such basic physics concepts as gravity, projectile motion and centrifugal force.

 

“What better laboratory to entice young people than an amusement park?” says J.R. Dennison, USU physics professor and a founding organizer of the event.

 

Teens will use accelerometers they’ve built themselves to measure G-forces on the Colossus roller coaster, bomb a giant target with raw eggs in self-designed protective containers from the Sky Coaster, display ideas for thrilling rides of the future and compete in the Physics Bowl academic competition. At the same time, they’ll have the opportunity to earn money for college. Last year the day’s top six academic competitors received four-year scholarship offers to Utah State, and prizes worth more than $75,000 were distributed.

 

Dennison estimates that by the 20th anniversary of Physics Day in 2009 nearly 100,000 teens will have participated in the action-packed event. Special plans are already in the works, he says, to celebrate next year’s landmark anniversary.

 

“Physics Day offers teens the opportunity to bring their world together with science,” says USU College of Science Dean Mary Hubbard. “By making this connection students are inspired to think about careers in science.”

 

Initiated by USU’s Physics Department in 1989, Physics Day is coordinated by USU and partners Idaho National Laboratory, Lagoon and the Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium. Additional sponsors include ATK Thiokol Launch Systems, Boeing, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Hill Air Force Base, IM Flash, Micron, MOOG, NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium, North Wind, S&S Worldwide, U.S. Navy, USU College of Science and USU Admissions.

 

In preparation for next year’s 20th anniversary celebration of USU Physics Day, the College of Science would like to hear from past participants. To share your memories of Physics Day, contact college writer Mary-Ann Muffoletto [maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu].

 

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Contact:  J.R. Dennison (USU), 435-797-2936; jr.dennison@usu.edu
Contact: Brenda Greenhalgh (INL), 208-526-9399; gnh@inel.gov
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517; maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu