Physics Force makes science really cool

They giggle like kids opening gifts on Christmas morning.

"Oh, yeah, it's more fun than anything else. We have more fun than the audience does," says physics teacher Jack Netland.

He was talking about the cannon that, using nothing more than atmospheric air pressure shoots a ping pong ball through two aluminum beverage cans.

And he was talking about the "poop organ" made out of plastic sewer pipes with which the Physics Force crew performed a "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" sing-along.

He was talking about the three wheeled cart on which Maple Grove High School physics teacher Fred Orsted triggered a fire extinguisher and blew himself across the stage.

He was talking about a half dozen physics demonstration shows the Physics Force does at Northrup Auditorium at the University of Minnesota every January.

The shows attract 20,000 school students, and are mounted to recruit youngsters into a science these teachers feel is frequently ignored.

"Physics was always the one science that seemed to have the shortest supply of people going into it, and one of the reasons is that everybody thinks it's extremely difficult," says teacher Jon Barber.

"It is a challenging field, but there's a lot of smart people, too, and they need to be going into that area," he says.

"The fact is that physical concepts are around you all the time, and when you know how to use 'em a little bit, it's amazing how it fits and it does exactly what the theory says it should do," says physics teacher Jack Netland.

This is the 21st year the Physics Force has been presenting physics demonstrations. For 13 years, they traveled to schools presenting to juniors and seniors. They decided they were "preaching to the choir," in that the students they were demonstrating for were already interested in physics.

Seven years ago, they decided to produce a show at Northrup Auditorium in an attempt to interest elementary school students in the possibility of a physics career.

Last year, their most successful year yet, they reached 3,500 kids doing two shows a day, and had a Thursday evening open show for kids and their parents, which drew 2,500 people. They reached 17,500 people in all.

This year, if things go as they have been, they might introduce the laws of physics to 20,000 people.

That would really cause them to giggle.

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By Ken Speake, KARE 11 News

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