On the evening of Thursday, February 28, 2013, Interferometer Support Scientist / E&PO Coordinator Dr. Daniel Klinglesmith, Optics Instrumentation Engineer, Alisa Shtromberg, and Graduate Students Tyler McCracken and Heather Bloemhard participated in the Math & Science Night event at Sarracino Middle School.
Ms. Shtromberg, Ms. Bloemhard and Mr. McCracken set up three activities which included a Michelson interferometer where kids could align two beam spots to make fringes, an infrared laser with infrared viewing targets, and a white light set up to look at how they can manipulate it with different types of optics. Dr. Klinglesmith had a demonstration set up to show how craters formed on places such as the Moon. His demonstration included the use of all purpose flour topped off with cocoa powder and throwing rocks (i.e. asteroids) into it to see how the craters were formed.
The students along with their parents were very engaged and interested in learning about properties of light and how it can be applied to science or everyday use. Check out some of the photos from the event below.
 Graduate Student Heather Bloemhard explaining to a group of kids about fringes at Sarracino Middle School Math & Science Night |
 Graduate Student Tyler McCracken explaining fringes to a student. |
 Dr. Dan Klinglesmith demoing the concept of asteroids and craters to a couple of students |