National Outreach

The American Physical Society - Division of Plasma Physics

The plasma demo demonstrates the properties of plasma. (Photo courtesy of Paul Rivenberg)

This group sponsors a successful series of national outreach days in conjunction with their annual meeting, which is held in a different North American city each Fall.  Local teachers are invited to special talks and workshops, and students are brought to a "Plasma Sciences Expo" where they are encouraged to explore a roomful of hands-on physics experiments. 

Some participating laboratories and institutions:

• General Atomics.
• Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• National Fusion Energy Website
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
• U.S. Department of Energy
• University of California, San Diego

The Coalition for Plasma Science

The Coalition does outreach to Congress, the general public and plasma-related institutions.  They have recently created A Teacher's Guide to Plasma Science on the Web, which lists plasma education web sites and analyzes them against the National Science Standards.