On Saturday, February 28, the Center for Energy Research conducted three sessions of hands-on science education activities for middle and high school girls as part of the 2009 Expanding Your Horizons event, hosted by the University of San Diego. Expanding Your Horizons is a national program that hosts dozens of weekend workshops across the country to encourage middle and high school girls to consider math and science careers (www.expandingyourhorizons.org).
The San Diego events are coordinated by the San Diego Science Alliance (www.sdsa.org/pub/eyh_docs/eyh/home.html), and for the past three years, have been hosted by the University of San Diego in the Shiley Center for Science and Technology on the USD campus www.sandiego.edu.

The CER presentations, entitled “The Hottest Stuff on Earth: Plasma Science and Fusion Energy”, introduced 36 girls and 12 college student mentors to the physics of the fourth state of matter and fusion energy research. The students used Tesla coils, plasma balls, Jacob’s ladders, and other plasma discharge devices to create plasmas, and studied their behavior in magnetic fields and their emission of light. The workshop also discussed many applications of plasmas, including fusion energy research at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility (http://fusion.gat.com/global/DIII-D).

Read complete article here: http://cer.ucsd.edu/NEWS/EYH2.shtml

Kelly Cochran, flight director for the Challenger Learning Center in Bloomington, was so thrilled with her experience while attending the Expanding Your Horizons conference when she was young that she decided to come back and teach a program during the 2009 conference.

“I love what I do, and I’m so pleased to be able to share it with other people,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of people in my lifetime that have pushed me and helped me grow, and I like to share those tools and toys I’ve gained from other people. It’s fun for me to be able to return and be one of those presenters who was so cool when I was a student.”

Cochran was one of 45 professional women in fields of math, science or technology who led a program during the 22nd annual Expanding Your Horizons in Math, Science and Technology on Saturday, March 14, at UIS to give girls in 6th, 7th and 8th grades the opportunity to learn about various topics and careers within math, technology and science.

Read complete article here: http://www.uis.edu/newsbureau/2009/03/2009-expanding-your-horizons-conference.html