Education and Public Outreach
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Graduate student Paul Chichura showing off some of the extreme cold weather gear to kindergarten students.
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KICP fellow Dr. Jason Henning running a lab designed to teach students about the properties of friction.
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Physicist Donna Kubik teaching students about how to make observations of and learn about birds.
CMB Instrumentation Summer School
We run a 1-week "hands-on" summer school designed to provide participants with working knowledge of the detectors and instrumentation used to measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Bi-annually at U. Chicago, we host approximately 15-20 students, aimed at senior undergraduates and early graduate students interested in pursuing a PhD in experimental physics or astrophysics. Â
Topics include: superconducting detectors, transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers, kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs); detector characterization, including beams, bands, time constants and polarization calibration; cryogenics and mm-wave optics; coherent and holographic techniques for characterizing optical components; and Fourier transform spectroscopy.
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Laser spectroscopy lab, designed to measure properties of mm-wave materials, including index of refraction, tranmission, and reflection. Led by graduate student Shreya Sutariya.
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Soldering lab, designed to teach students the basics of laboratory electronics and soldering. Led by Dr. Amy Bender.
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Making liquid nitrogen ice-cream at the summer school dinner.
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Sharing the Excitment and Science Communication
Cosmology, the South Pole (and Antarctica), and Telescopes are exciting to a diverse audience, and provide a hook for teaching many scientific concepts. SPT collaboration members routinely participate in numerous outreach activities, including: giving tours of scientific facilities to K-12 and junior college students; producing online scientific content and videos; volunteering to give online or public lectures through many outside programs, including at Adler Planetarium, Life Long Learning lectures at Senior Centers; Saturday Morning Physics, and participating in local science festivals. Â
Dr. Sasha Rahlin in a youtube video describing the SPT telescope and science
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Graduate students Wei Quan and Paul Chichura showing a hands-on demo at the South Side Science festival.
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Graduate student Kyra Fichman giving a tour of the Pritzker Nano-Fabrication (PNF) facility at the University of Chicago to high school students in the KICP Space Explorers program.