SCIENCE OUTREACH

April- May 2024

Volume 16

Connecting and Enhancing Community Engagement

Spring Into Science!

Thank you for supporting this Science Outreach community-wide signature event. Spring Into Science on Saturday, April 20, was a HUGE success!

Spring Into Science

Impacting the Community!

Thank you for your support! Spring Into Science was a huge success. This year, over 800 students and their families attended this Science Outreach opportunity. The event was held in the Frick Atrium and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Students engaged in hands-on demonstrations and activities.

Thank you to all Princeton University volunteers, researchers (undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty), the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City, the Mercer County Rutgers Extension Office, and everyone who shared their science and research with the students to foster STEM literacy and increase the pipeline and interest in science, education, and STEM careers.

A full-picture gallery will be available on the Science Outreach website in a few weeks.

We are looking forward to hosting this event next year! Save the Date: April 19, 2025.

Thank you to ALL who participated at

Spring Into Science!

See what you missed......

click the link below to view the Spring Into Science 2024 event video!

Video - Spring Into Science 2024

2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Science Outreach, in collaboration with the Council on Science and Technology and the Astrophysical Science Department, hosted a Total Solar Eclipse viewing event in downtown Princeton. The event started at 2 p.m., and onlookers spoke to the experts to learn more about how eclipses happen, made a pin camera craft, and received a pair of solar eclipse glasses. The main event took place at approximately 3:25 p.m. Thanks to all who came out! It was a fun and exciting day.

Science Outreach

On Campus

STEM Academy Visit

Monday, April 8, was such an exciting day for Science Outreach. Along with the Princeton Computer Science (COS) Department, Science Outreach hosted students from the Edison High School STEM Academy. While on campus, students toured two campus labs- the robotics lab and the state-of-the-art cleanroom nanotech fabrication research facility and had the opportunity to meet and network with Princeton faculty, staff, and students during lunch. Thank you to Corina Hernandez, Department Chair, Szymon Rusinkiewicz, and all of the volunteers who made this visit possible.

ACES Program from Edison School District

Science Outreach, in collaboration with The Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM), hosted middle school students from John Adams Middle School and Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Edison School District on Friday, April 12. The students engaged in hands-on fun and educational activities based on some of the cutting-edge materials research and engineering conducted at Princeton University. The students also toured some of our research facilities and talked about the college experience with Princeton students. A special thank you to Janine Nunes and Sonia Natalias. Science Outreach continues to build sustainable community relationships to increase the pipeline of STEM learners.

Science Outreach

In the Community

Science Saturday at the Lawrence Library

Tanya Goyal (CSML) hosted an interactive outreach opportunity on Saturday, April 13, about Understanding Large Language Models and their impact on artificial intelligence programs.

Science Outreach Fellows at Urban Promise in Trenton

Science Outreach Fellows Aryan Gupta, Diya Hundiwala, and Mell Aguiar facilitated a hands-on activity on April 15 with the students at Urban Promise, Camp Truth. The students learned about the law of reflection and refraction. With the use of mirrors, light bounces off of reflective surfaces and you can redirect a light beam to wherever you need to if you place the mirrors correctly. The students were super engaged, learned a lot, and enjoyed interacting with the fellows. Each week a different team of Science Outreach Fellows share a science activity with the students. By sharing hands-on science with students at an early age, the engagement will increase their interest, awareness, and preparedness in science and STEM careers.

Great job, Science Outreach Fellows!

Volunteers Needed for

Upcoming Opportunities

Volunteers are needed to host hands-on engaging science to students at:

Lawrence Public Library (May 11)
Ewing Public Library (May 11 and June 22)

If you would like to volunteer for any upcoming Science Outreach opportunity, please click the volunteer box below. Volunteers are needed for ongoing and new outreach opportunities at area schools and community programs. Please indicate the outreach opportunity you are interested in, and you will be contacted to learn more about how you can share your science in the community.

Congratulations ProCES!

ProCES 25^th Anniversary Event

Congratulations to our colleagues in ProCES (The Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship) for celebrating its 25th Anniversary at Princeton University. This three-day anniversary event included many informative sessions and presentations, including a panel discussion on Responsible Research Practices with Environmental Justice Communities: Africatown Community History. In this discussion, Ms. Joycelyn Davis, an Africatown and Clotilda Descendant (the last ship of enslaved people landed on the shore of Mobile Bay, AL) spoke about the importance of oral history and returning to the community. It was inspiring and encouraging to see that these important stories are being told by students and researchers like Jay Fiskio (Oberlin College), Kern Jackson (University of South Alabama), and Kai Menafee (Oberlin College). Kai shared how his work took a poethical approach to preserve, uplift, and ensure Africatown’s intellectual ownership of its community history and the importance of revising, reciprocating, and returning to these community historians.

In a separate presentation, Dr. Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark, spoke about the importance of a two-way partnership between universities (academia) and the community. They are the ones who “lay their heads down here at night,” working in tandem with the community will yield sustainable results.

Congratulations to Tania Boster, Maria Lockwood, and Tara Carr-Lemke.

Community Outreach Events

Astrophotography Event

All are invited to attend a lecture by Babak Tafreshi, a National Geographic astrophotographer, on April 24. This talk will focus on night-time photography of astronomical bodies and the impact of light pollution on our perception of the night sky and its impact on wildlife.

The talk will take place at 100 Arthur Lewis Auditorium in Robertson Hall. Register at iran.princeton.edu/events.

Let's Track Your Community Outreach

If you, your lab, or your department facilitated an outreach opportunity, please complete the tracking form and upload a photo from your event. We will feature your opportunity in the next edition of the Science Outreach newsletter.