What does it mean to be a scientist? A scientist is someone who never gets tired of asking the question Why? In this sense, all people are born scientists; some of them just stopped asking questions along the way. Thus, the best approach to teaching the next generation of young scientists is to encourage their intrinsic curiosity at the earliest stage of their education. Based on this thinking, a natural direction for educational outreach is work with students in elementary school, who are well-known for their mastery of the question Why?

I am frequently participating in initiatives that allow me to develop science activities and give talks to students between 1^st and 12^th grade, as well as undergraduate and graduate college students. The goal of these activities is to introduce the students to the magical world of plasma physics and reveal how mathematics relates to the physical world. Below is a list of upcoming events, events and topics I have presented to students in the past few years, as well as institutions I have previously worked with.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Oct 22, 2020 – “Lunar Dust”, Teen Science Café at Mayborn Museum, Waco, TX
• Nov 10, 2020 – “Small Grains, Hyper Impact: Frontier Science at the DIII-D Tokamak”, APS DPP, remote conference, Nov 9-13, 2020
• Nov 12, 2020 – “Semi-classical turbulence in a dusty plasma monolayer”, APS DPP, remote conference, Nov 9-13, 2020

TALKS AND OUTREACH EVENTS

Elementary school

• What is a scientist?, South Bosque Elementary School, Woodway, TX, Sept 19, 2018 (2 groups, 20 students each, 1^st grade)
• International Space Station, Mountainview Elementary School, Waco, TX, Nov 4, 2018 (students, 3^rd-4^st grade)
• The Plasma Universe!, Speegleville Elementary School, Waco, TX, Sept 19, 2019 (50-60 students, 2^nd grade)

Middle School

• Dusty plasmas in space, River Valley Intermediate School, McGregor, TX, April 4, 2018 (60 students, 6^th grade)
• Research on the International Space Station, science fair at Salado Intermediate School, Salado, TX, Nov 4, 2018 (8 groups, 25 students each, 6^th and 7^th grade)
• Life and dusty plasma science on the International Space Station, River Valley Intermediate, McGregor, TX, Feb 20, 2019 (2 groups,  students each, 6^th grade)
• Dusty Plasmas From Earth to Space, River Valley Intermediate School, McGregor, TX, Feb 20, 2020 (6th grade)

High School

• Complex plasma experiments on the International Space Station: Present Status and Future Perspectives, Texas Bioscience Institute, Temple, TX, Oct 5, 2018 (2 groups, students each, 11^th and 12^th grade)
• Smart dusty plasma fluids on the ISS, Baylor University Physics Bowl competition, Waco, TX, Feb 16, 2019
• Gravity is working against me: Dusty plasmas in space, Rapoport Academy, Waco, TX Feb 27, 2019 (5 groups, 15 students each, 8^th grade)

University

• Complex plasma experiments on the International Space Station: Present Status and Future Perspectives, Baylor University Department of Physics Colloquium, Waco, TX, Sept 26, 2018 (undergraduate and graduate students)
• How order emerges from chaos in the mesoscopic world, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Graduate Speaker Series, Baylor university, Waco, TX, Dec 4, 2018 (undergraduate and graduate students)
• Alice In-Between Worlds: The Wonderland of Dusty Plasma, invited talk at Colorado State University, Department of Physics Colloquium, Fort Collins, CO, Sept 23, 2019
• Alice In-Between Worlds: The Wonderland of Dusty Plasma, invited talk at Rice University, Joint AMO and Space Plasma Physics Seminar, Houston, TX, Oct 10, 2019
• Alice In-Between Worlds: The Wonderland of Dusty Plasma, invited talk at University of Michigan, colloquium co-sponsored by the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, Nov 22, 2019
• Alice In-Between Worlds: The Wonderland of Dusty Plasma, invited talk at University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, March 2, 2020
• “More is Different. Anomalous is normal.” talk on early career professional development, as part of the Young Emory Physicists (YEP) Talk Series, May 26, 2020
• “Small grains, hyper-impact – dusty plasma in tokamaks” talk for the International Online Seminar on Dusty Plasmas, June 2, 2020
• Panel session on how to make good posters and talks, as part of McNair workshops for underprivileged undergraduate students, July 17, 2020
• June 25, 2020 – “Intro to Complex Plasmas“, as part of the SULI intro to plasma course
• Sept 26, 2020 – “Small Grains, Hyper Impact”, Fusion and Plasma Graduate School Day
• Sept 26, 2020 – “Semi-Classical Turbulence in Dusty Plasma”, Fusion and Plasma Graduate School Day
• Oct 13, 2020 – “Spectral Approach to Particle Transport in Turbulent Dusty Plasma”, SoCal Plasma Zoom Seminar, collaboration between UCSD, UCLA, and UC Irvine (video recording of the talk)

Public Events

• Jedi Plasma Physics, plasma physics demonstration and activities for kids, Mayborn Museum Festival of Light, Waco, TX, May 18, 2019
• The science of rainbows and glows, physics demonstration and activities for kids, Hewitt Public Library STEAM Fest, Hewitt, TX, July 20, 2019
• The Plasma Universe, plasma physics demonstrations and activities for the CTHC Junior Einstein Camp, Waco, TX, Aug 1, 2019 (25-35 students, elementary school through high school)
• Jedi Plasma Physics, Meet the Scientist activity at Mayborn Museum, Waco, TX, Nov 9, 2019
• Lunar Dust Talk, APS DPP Science expo, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Oct 24-25, 2019
• Diffusion demo, Present Your PhD at the Waco Farmers Market, Waco, TX, Nov 16, 2019
• Oct 8, 2020 – “A Dusty Way to Space”, Virtual Meet the Scientist activity at Mayborn Museum, Waco, TX

SEE ALSO

• Baylor University Present Your Ph.D. Initiative
• Mayborn Museum Portal to the Public