Progress in the preparation of WYP2005 around the globe

List of participants

"Cultural Heritage Project"
"Stories in Physics"
"Light Around the World"
"Playing Physics"
"Physics Talent Search"
"Einstein@home"
"Architecture in Schools"
"International Poster Contest"
"New Projects"
"EurophysicsFun"

The Second Preparatory Conference for the World Year of Physics 'WYP2005' took place in Montreal on March 20-21, 2004 immediately preceding the March meeting of the American Physical Society (APS).

Thanks to the excellent organization by the APS the Conference was a great success. About 70 participants from 30 nations met at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in a friendly and productive atmosphere.After the welcome address of Martin Huber, President of EPS, and a talk by Béla Joós, President of the Canadian Association of Physicists, the first round of discussions started.The different national and international projects were presented, outlining the great progress accomplished since the first Preparatory Conference that was held in Graz in July 2003.

Particularly striking was the variety and originality of the proposed projects, ranging from making of WYP postal stamps, the creation of specific websites to the organization of poster contests, exhibitions, conferences or science festivals. Raising public awareness, communicating the beauty and relevance of physics to the public was addressed in the workshop called 'Physics on the Road and Publicizing your WYP2005 Event'. Several examples of outreach projects with live presentations, static displays or other classroom activities were presented in an enthusiastic, yet highly professional manner.The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) unraveled its program for the WYP2005 and demonstrated the strength of a large society in planning nationwide activities.The state of preparation in countries like Brazil, China, France, India, Japan, Poland and the USA, just to mention a few, was very impressive.

Several exciting international projects were presented and generated active discussions.

Among them, "Light around the World" and "Physics Talent Search" were judged to have a high potential impact on the media. Another project that attracted much attention is the project Einstein@home that consists in establishing a distributed computing network of private PCs worldwide to analyze the huge amount of data generated by LIGO, the US Gravitational-wave Observatory.The search for gravitational waves was also part of an outstanding, educational talk delivered by Clifford Will of Washington University in St Louis, MO. Will raised the question - after 100 years: "Was Einstein right?" In his lecture he showed how a revolution in astronomy and technology led to a renaissance of general relativity in the sixties and to a systematic program to try to verify its predictions.Finally, with his project "Stories in Physics", Fred Hartline from Argonne National Laboratory, convinced all the participants that collecting and publishing original personal stories about physics or famous physicists could spark the interest of young students.A general consensus among the participants was also that EPS13, the 13th General Meeting of EPS in Bern (July 11-15, 2005) will be one of the high points - if not the high point - of the WYP2005. Prizes of several international contests will be awarded during special ceremonies at this meeting. M. Ducloy, president of the WYP International Steering Committee announced also the Conference on "Physics for Tomorrow" planned in January 2005 at the Paris Headquarter of UNESCO. This event promises to become the official launch event for the World Year of Physics 2005.

The outline of the program summarize main projects:

• "Cultural Heritage Project" - Contact persons: Max E. Lippitsch and Sonja Draxler
The aim of this project is to establish international cooperation, a travelling exhibition that brings to life Outstanding achievements of physics from four millenia. Starting in 2005 the exhibition is going on tour through the cities of the participants, staying at least a month in each... More

• "Stories in Physics" - Contact person: Fred Hartline
The aim of this project is to reach students and adults through told stories about physics and stories about physics can do much to make physicists and their work better understood ... More

• "Light Around the World" - Contact person: Max E. Lippitsch
The World Year of Physics must be more than an individual event. It must be a truly world wide project. For this reason in the evening of the 18 April 2005 (the 50th anniversary of Einstein's death) a laser is switched on in Princeton, shining its light to the sky in westward direction. Upon this signal, observers of the beam activate their prepared light sources and carry on the message ... More

• "Playing Physics" - Contact person: Masno Ginting
The best way for developping infant curiosity towards serious scientific activity is playing. Therefore all projects of the world year of physics will also deal with the question how to convert the specific of the project into toys and games... More

• "Physics Talent Search" - Contact person : Beverly Hartline
Select 2005 students aged 10 to 19 from around the world for their physics interest and talent (401 in each age group: 10-11, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18-19, boys & girls). A long discussion was held during the second meeting of the WYP as the criteria of selection can be different between countries. This project has not the intention to make a competition, but has the intent to "Search for a new Einstein". Teachers should look after their students who have creativity. The selection will be made in a playing situation (campus). A boy and a girl will be the finalists. The steering committee decided to change the title from Nobel Talent search into Physics Talent Search... More

• "Einstein@home"
It is a project developed to search data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) for signals coming rapidly rotating neutron stars, known as pulsars... More

• "Architecture in Schools" - Contact person: Mirjana Bozic
In order to make physics more appealing to young people and students it seems necessary to make some changes and improvements in the students surroundings (schools...)... More
http://octopus.phy.bg.ac.yu/~bozic/eduarch.html

• "International Poster Contest" - Contact person: Caitlin Watson
It is a proposal for physics poster competition. The suggested timescale is:
- Launch of the poster competition at ASE (January 2005)
- Deadline for posters May 2005
- Long listing of enties - June/July 2005
- Final judging and announcement October 2005... More

• "New Projects" - Contact person: David Jamieson
In Australia they will not only celebrate Einstein year, but also the William Sutherland year, who is an australian physicist. He is linked to Einstein as he worked on the diffusion of dissolved substances in solution. Einstein published the same equation using exactly the same line of reasoning... More

• "EurophysicsFun"
This proposal suggests that students may be employed at Universities throughout Europe for youthful and enthusiastic communication of physics to pupils in the range from primary school to upper secondary school, extending the contact between universities and the broad public. This has already be done in Denmark, at the University of Aarhus, where the Physic Show for several years has considerably expanded contact to schools as well as the public with great success. The reason for this success lies in gathering together excellent science communicators, who provide an experience which is both educational and entertaining, whilst remaining at a high professional level. The language is “simple” and past between younger... More