Down to Earth Experimental Physics (DEEP) PhD Program

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Hands-on physical sciences club for students in grades 5 and 6

The Down to Earth Experimental Physics (DEEP) PhD Program concludes the seventh year of the program in 2018-2019.  It has been an overwhelming success that has graduated more than 150 students. The students learn about physical phenomena and devices through hands­‐on experiments.  They build devices such as microscopes, telescopes, and spectrographs out of commonly available materials. This hands-­on approach gives students the opportunity to gain a deeper knowledge of the concepts studied by explaining to friends or family members what they did in the most recent session.

The meetings take place after school, 3:30-­‐4:30pm, in the science labs at Lake Bluff Elementary School or Atwater Elementary School in Shorewood, WI.

Recent sessions:

“Seeing the Invisible” –  Sound waves (1st session)

Students built a drum to “see” the noise. Made a simple ruler guitar to make high and low notes to learn how string instruments work. Students generated standing wave patterns in the Chladni plate.

“Light tricks” – Refraction (2nd session) Students used Jell-O cut into various shapes (such as convergent and divergent lenses) and laser pointers to discover the law of refraction.

“Build your own telescope” (3rd session)

Students used the knowledge acquired in 2nd session to build a telescope made of real lenses, which the students took home to observe the Moon, constellations and planets.

“Diffraction” (4th session)

Students split a ray of light and found out what it is made of. Made a spectroscope to see how scientists can study light and use it to investigate the chemicals found in faraway objects (including astronomical bodies).

Field Trip to UWM

The DEEP program culminates in an end-of-the year field trip to UWM to visit the Planetarium and the Raicu Lab.  In the planetarium the students learned about telescopes and spectral analysis in astronomy.

During their visit to the Raicu Lab, the students learned about research microscopes and the spectral analysis of cells and molecules with demonstrations by Joel Paprocki, a graduate student in the Raicu Research Group.