For the sixth year, a monthly event has been taking place in the Department of Physics and Mathematics of the University of Latvia – it is the School for Young Physicists. Each time, around 200 high school students from all of Latvia gather to explore a topic of physics that is generally not discussed in the school curriculum.
The activities start with bachelor, masters or doctorate level students explaining the monthly topic in an entertaining manner in two popular lectures. The emphasis is placed on introducing the basic concepts in an easy to understand way, while also trying to expand on the subjects covered in school and giving real world examples.
Thereafter, the attendants are tasked to conduct an experiment that shows how things discussed in the lectures appear in reality. The experiments are designed to differ from those done in school physics lessons. For example, in a session about optical waves, the students measured the amount of pixels on their phone screens by using laser diffraction and later compared the results to the information available about their phone online.
Lastly, a professional in the area of the month’s subject is invited to give a more in depth story about how the topics discussed are relevant in his or her field of expertise. This shows students the different possible career prospects associated with natural and technical sciences as well as giving them some insight in more contemporary issues that people are dealing with in these fields.
Because the event lasts five hours, students take breaks after each activity, in which they can stretch their feet and refresh themselves with a cup of tea and the food provided. Every time we prepare various types of sandwiches with cheese, sausage, vegetables etc. and afterwards some cookies and chocolate.
A competitive spirit among the students is maintained by organizing contests and giving away prizes. After the popular lectures, tests are handed out to students. Their scores are gathered up and the best ones are awarded. Furthermore, a contest among schools is held, where the test scores of top students of that school are tallied up as well as points earned from completing home assignments given after each session. These home assignments usually involve exploring the topic discussed in everyday situations and filming it. At the end of the season, the school with the most points receives the honorable School Cup and the students some bigger prizes than the ones usually handed out.
In the past year, topics such as rotational mechanics, forensic science, biophysics and optics have been covered. Experimental highlights have been the aforementioned pixel measuring with light diffraction as well as solving a crime by inspecting a set up crime scene for clues. As for the professional lecturers, notable examples are a professional physicist working in forensics giving a lecture on his work and a high standing professor introducing high school students to the world of quantum physics.
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