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  • Open Access

Challenges and opportunities for informal physics learning in the COVID era

Michael B. Bennett

Kathleen A. Hinko and Dena Izadi

  • JILA NSF Physics Frontier Center, 440 UCB, Boulder, Colorado USA 80309
  • Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado USA 80309

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan USA 48823

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, 023102 – Published 13 July, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.023102

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted every aspect of academic activity, including the informal education and public engagement efforts of physics departments and institutions. As part of a large-scale national survey of the landscape of informal physics education programs, we have conducted a series of short interviews with directors and facilitators for a variety of programs in order to create a snapshot of whether and how programs have been able to adapt to the challenges and risks of the pandemic. Broadly, we find that programs are struggling to maintain any activity at all, and that those programs still in operation have relied largely on the efforts of individual director or facilitators to make substantial adaptations. Additionally, we find that those programs that have been most successful in maintaining activity benefit from strong, ongoing institutional support; we present the findings of this study both to complement existing research on formal spaces and to advocate for the continued support of informal physics education, which continues to play a crucial role in connecting departments to the public.

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, 023102– Published 13 July, 2021
  • Received 5 March 2021
  • Accepted 25 May 2021
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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