From levitating superconductors to home-science experiments and card games, FLEET built a diverse and engaging set of outreach tools and resources to engage students, teachers and the public.
FLEET used 1500 neodymium magnets to build a giant levitating superconductor in the form of a Möbius strip, invented a card game to introduce students to circuits and transistors, took FLEET scientists and science demonstrations into primary schools and kindergartens, developed a range of teacher resources linked to FLEET research and combined the brains trust of all FLEET members to produce a range of hands-on home science experiments.
Superconducting Möbius track
The superconducting, supercooled Möbius track was the natural star of FLEET science outreach, allowing demonstration and discussion of multiple FLEET-relevant areas of science, including:
- Topology (via the Möbius strip)
- Superconductivity (an interesting quantum state with implications for electrical resistance)
- Magnetism
- Low-temperature physics.
Communicating science with games
FLEET posed a challenge to a team of maths and physics students from Monash University Bachelor of Science Advanced–Global Challenges to find innovative ways to communicate key physics concepts to school students. The team developed a range of innovative games and physical demonstrations:
- Electron tiggy, a physical ice-breaker activity to demonstrate electron scattering in conventional semiconductors
- Wired, a card game to introduce electrical circuit components, including transistors
- The Macro-chip, a physical, water-based demonstration of binary computing via transistor switches.
FLEET Schools: teacher resources
Fleet developed three curriculum-linked teacher resources containing information, hands-on activities and worksheets targeted at years 4 to 9:
Home science: floating water, balloon rockets and catapults
To help make science more accessible to the wider community, and build a passion for science in the young Australians who will be the country’s future great scientists and engineers, FLEET developed more than 80 easy, fun home science experiments using accessible, everyday items. Each was ground-tested with simple instructions written for a non-science audience, including a description of the underlying scientific concepts.
Our secret weapon: FLEETonians themselves!
FLEET members performed science shows at kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, demonstrating physics with equipment not typically available to students.
The program brought scientists to the students, allowing them to ask questions about science, careers in science and any other burning questions they had such as why aren’t you wearing a lab coat?
It was these face-to-face conversations with practising scientists that most-effectively ‘shifted the dial’ in engaging school students.
The participation of FLEET members drove our success in outreach. And this was not just due to sheer numbers. Our members were the personal, relatable, inspirational face of working scientists, and their interactions with students and the public increased the trust that people feel in science.
Having scientists engaged in one-on-one interactions (rather than ‘broadcast mode’) and face-to-face conversations with students and the public also allowed deeper, more effective communication.
FLEET also recognised the power of putting women forward as the face of science, and women featuring at nearly 80% of all public FLEET outreach events. Women in FLEET also developed and delivered lessons for FLEET’s Future Electronics unit at John Monash Science School. This gave high school students the opportunity to see successful women in science first-hand, and female students acknowledged this in their feedback as helping them see a place for themselves in physics.
