PCCM offers full slate of outreach programs during summer months
Activities give the general public, school administrators, teachers, and students of all ages access to science and Princeton’s laboratories

Engineering and materials science will reach beyond the labs of Princeton this summer to students and teachers throughout New Jersey and the country. The Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM) and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) have teamed to offer a vibrant education outreach program for students and teachers within and beyond the borders of the Princeton campus.

Led by Daniel Steinberg, outreach director for PCCM, and a team of faculty members, these outreach programs replace the normally dry, quiet research atmosphere with an excited, charged, and often noisy atmosphere of enthusiastic students and teachers actively participating in the study of science.

These outreach programs are designed to give the general public, school administrators, teachers, and students of all ages access to science.
Dr. Steinberg strives to support science programs in New Jersey schools through the training of teachers and students with the cooperation of local schools and educational support programs. PCCM is a federally funded operation.

“We have many exciting programs that demonstrate Princeton’s dedication to science education beyond the borders of our campus,” Dr. Steinberg said. “Through our partnerships with local educational programs and schools, we have designed courses and demonstrations to give students and teachers access to Princeton labs and faculty.”

The Princeton University Materials Academy (PUMA) gives high school students a chance to be a part of cutting-edge research. PCCM also has programs to provide research experience to undergraduate students as well as middle school, and high school teachers. Previews of the many summer programs follow.

For more information on any of PCCM’s outreach programs, please contact Dr. Steinberg at 609-258-5598, or dsteinbe@princeton.edu.

PUMA
High school students come to Princeton to explore science on the cutting edge. PUMA is a summer program that brings high school students into the PCCM labs and auditoriums to learn about emerging technologies.
Princeton science and engineering professors, including Wolé Soboyejo, Rick Register, Jay Benziger, Steve Forrest, David Srolovitz, George Scherer, and Barrie Royce provide the concepts that students apply in the laboratories.
To help them truly grasp these seemingly complex concepts, games, challenges and competitions are built into the curriculum. These activities expose teens to the diverse applications of science and engineering and make it a fun summer program as well.

There are three different PUMA programs:

Mentor Power
High school students from Trenton, Princeton, and Lawrenceville will be trained in international espionage this summer—sort of. Students will learn math, chemistry, physics, and engineering through activities designed as spy missions. They will design, test, and present original smart sensor devices. First, they will play the role of James Bond, using their knowledge of science to complete missions, such as evading a motion detector. They will then play the part of Agent Q, the creator of Bond’s fabulous gadgets, by creating their own gadget.

Middlesex High School
Students from Middlesex High School will learn some sweet science—condensed matter physics. Cramming M&Ms® into a small space will teach students about the structure of matter. They will also learn how to create the sun’s energy in a bottle with hot fusion at Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. Additionally, they will learn about super-high definition TV screens through the latest in organic optic electronics and see a TV screen that rolls up to the size of a pen just like a piece of paper.

Upward Bound
Early detection of cancer can save lives. A group of high school students from the Trenton area perfect the ultimate early detection technique using materials science one day. These students will reproduce results in cancer-cell detection so new that they have not yet been published with BioMEMS (microscopic machines that work with the human body) and cantilevers as small as 1/50 of the diameter of a human hair. The results of the research are still uncertain, which shows just how current these topics are. The students will use the most advanced imaging techniques available, such as the Atomic Force Microscope and the Scanning Electron Microscope. They will also learn the latest clean room techniques. For this program, PCCM is partnering with Mercer County Community College for high school students from at-risk school districts in Trenton.

Research Experience
As part of PCCM’s rich outreach program this summer, the center will continue programs to make science and engineering research accessible to bright minds that otherwise would not have had the opportunity. PCCM has two research experience programs this summer: Research Experience for Undergrads (REU), and Research Experience for Teachers (RET).

REU
Undergraduate students from around the country will be given the opportunity to perform actual research in materials science and engineering that complements the ongoing research projects of PCCM scientists. With experience in the labs, short courses, and lectures, the students are able to explore topics in materials science and engineering in a hands-on way that better prepares them for careers in science and technology. This summer, 18 students will live on campus for nine weeks and participate in social activities as part of the program.

RET
RET is a program for high school teachers of chemistry, physics, technology, or related subjects who wish to enrich their curriculum with real applications of the science found in their textbooks. Teachers conduct research in the lab of a PCCM faculty member and use this experience to improve science education, enhance appreciation for engineering, and increase engineering and materials science taught in schools. RET also allows participants to provide insight on teaching and teamwork for other struggling teachers, in addition to developing a specific curriculum that can be used by any science teacher in the world.

This summer, high school teacher Matt Gristina, a returning RET participant, will continue his research with chemical engineering Professor Jay Benziger. They are studying fuel-cell cars as a way to teach high school students about engineering and the need to solve the energy crisis. Photo by Daniel Steinberg
PUMA students from Trenton High School evaluate a graph in an attempt to reproduce the results during an activity called “graph this.”

For more information on any of PCCM’s outreach programs, please contact Dr. Steinberg at 609-258-5598, or dsteinbe@princeton.edu.