Our SPS chapter participates in a number of outreach programs, and all SPS members are able to be involved in these.

Outreach Program at Charlottesville High School

We really enjoyed volunteering this October (2024) at Charlottesville High School! We talked to CHS students about majoring in physics, starting college, and how they can get involved in research! Each of our 4 volunteers gave a short presentation on their research experiences, and CHS students got the chance to ask them questions Many students were interested in the research topics we talked about, ranging from astrophysics to quantum computing. It’s always a great time to visit Mr. Manning’s class, we look forward to coming back soon!”

CLASS Program at Clark Elementary

Since Spring 2018, we have been working with Clark Elementary School’s CLASS afterschool program to bring physics to local Charlottesville children! We volunteered with them once a week, performing hands on demos with them that were meant to introduce them to physics concepts such as buoyancy, properties of light, forces, and the universe. We also collaborated with UVA’s Dark Skys Bright Kids organization to bring a planetarium to the school.

Want us to work with you?

If you are interested in having us work with your school or organization, please contact us!

Interested in getting involved?

Students who are interested in volunteering to work with us at schools should fill out this form.

UVA Physics Demo Days

The UVA physics department hosts two demo days per year: one in the Spring semester, the National Physics Day Show (which sometimes gets press coverage), and one in the summer, as a part of the BLAST summer camp. In these demo shows, UVA physics majors partner up with professors to design and perform demonstrations for a large audience of ~100 children and adults.

If you are interested in being involved with these program, you can either contact us or contact the organizer for the show directly to get more information.