Visit to Juniper Hill Elementary School, Framingham, MA
11/7/02

On November 7, 2002, Dr. Jeff Steinhauer, a CUA-funded postdoc, went to the Juniper Hill Elementary School in Framingham, Massachusetts, on Career Day, to meet with 3 groups of 10 4th and 5th graders. These 30 students had chosen in advance to meet with a physicist. In addition to learning about what physics is, and what a physicist does, the students learned about physical concepts by participating in demonstrations. The concepts discussed included gravity, the light spectrum, lasers, atoms, molecules, electric charge, and the low-temperature properties of matter. These concepts were demonstrated by means of diffraction gratings, lasers, liquid nitrogen, a Van de Graff generator, and falling objects. The thank-you notes from the students were unanimously enthusiastic, with comments such as "You have the best job ever!" and "It's so interesting!"