The physics club is more active than ever this year.  With approximately 18 active members and several others on our mailing list, we are working on many projects and becoming more active in the community.  We’ve got a lot of big ideas, but for right now we are focusing on four main projects:  a rail gun, a lifter (ionic wind generator), a Beowulf computer (cluster computer), and rebuilding the physics club trebuchet.  We get together every Saturday afternoon to work on these projects.  Our goal is to have these projects ready to display at open house on April 18th.

In addition to these projects, we have been asked by several elementary schools to give physics demonstrations.  So far we have preformed two shows and are scheduled for two more in the coming weeks.  We focus on hands-on activities and prompting the kids to ask why something is happening.  Everyone in the club enjoys doing this and the kids have responded very well to our shows.  This is something the physics club is interested in continuing and possibly seeking out opportunities instead of having them find us.

We are also trying to get involved with recycling projects.  Since we have a lot of computer scraps left over from the Beowulf project we are planning to take the leftover plastic and metal to Big Lakes Developmental Center where they have a recycling program specifically for computer waste.

Once a month we schedule a “movie night” where we watch science fiction movies and discuss them.  Anyone is welcome to come.