Physics and Astronomy

Outreach

The Carthage Physics & Astronomy Department encourages physics students to participate in outreach activities at area schools and organizations.

SPS: Society of Physics Students

Members of the Carthage SPS chapter frequently visit Kenosha area middle and high schools to present physics and astronomy demonstrations. Previous demonstrations have dealt with light and its wave properties: the visible light spectrum using spectroscopes, measuring the speed of light, diffraction gratings, and explaining why the sky is blue.

CFAO Teacher Workshops

Carthage College and Yerkes Observatory hosted a week-long workshop on basic astronomical optics for middle and secondary level in-service teachers with active astronomy curricula.

Participants in the Carthage/Yerkes Workshop in front of the Yerkes 40" refractor.
Curriculum developers worked in teams to produce astronomy and optics-centered activities and exercises for publication in the Hands On Universe Program.

The workshops introduced basic ray and physical optics within the context of astronomical image acquisition and processing. Participants developed curricula for a new module to be integrated into the Hands-On-Universe (HOU) Curriculum. The HOU module will be made available to workshop participants for beta-testing in classrooms.

The workshop was funded by the NSF Center for Adaptive Optics and jointly administered by Carthage College physics faculty and by staff at Yerkes Observatory.