In-the-dark
Corrupting high school students at ISS
July: once again, another 2 weeks of my life spent with (corrupting & mind-twisting) high school students.
In fact it's probably my most passionate outreach engagement.
...at ISS - the International Science School*
( http://www.scienceschool.usyd.edu.au )
Now, just because this sounds all very nerdy, it doesn't mean the participating students are nerds! I'm an ex-student, and look at me... ok, may be not - bad example. : P
As a matter of fact I attended ISS in 1997, then came back as a staffie in '99 and senior staffie in '01. Usually that's as much as anyone could formally get involved.
Except me... because ISS is held at USyd, and because I'm STILL here (you there, shut up!), quote,
"Hong just kept coming back....and back...and back."
In fact it's probably my most passionate outreach engagement.
...at ISS - the International Science School*
( http://www.scienceschool.usyd.edu.au )
Now, just because this sounds all very nerdy, it doesn't mean the participating students are nerds! I'm an ex-student, and look at me... ok, may be not - bad example. : P
As a matter of fact I attended ISS in 1997, then came back as a staffie in '99 and senior staffie in '01. Usually that's as much as anyone could formally get involved.
Except me... because ISS is held at USyd, and because I'm STILL here (you there, shut up!), quote,
"Hong just kept coming back....and back...and back."
ISS had a really big impact on my life when I came as a student, and I must say it's quite exciting to come back to ISS and be able to give something back as a researcher.
Mind you, I tried very hard this year to NOT reveal my age!! I mean, I didn't wanna say
"Hi I'm Hong. I was one of you guys... TEN years ago!!"
Yet some of them found out somehow... and in the end I just told them all. Honesty is always best! : P
One of the ISS activities is a tour of the different physics labs, including our CUDOS lab. And off I went, explaining about optical fibres & telecommunications and did a very cute demo of WDM (wavelength-division multiplexing).
"Hi I'm Hong. I was one of you guys... TEN years ago!!"
Yet some of them found out somehow... and in the end I just told them all. Honesty is always best! : P
One of the ISS activities is a tour of the different physics labs, including our CUDOS lab. And off I went, explaining about optical fibres & telecommunications and did a very cute demo of WDM (wavelength-division multiplexing).
The FUTURE is in our hands!
Lots of "oooh!! aaarrhhhh!!!"s, which was very cool... heaps of fun to see eyes light up and sparkle upon hearing that
"if you had one of these 40Gb/s channels all to yourself, you could download 1000 mp3s in a second!!"
Bill explaining fibre bragg grating fabrication
Got a fair few feedback and it was really good to hear they really liked the CUDOS tour!! Hooraaaay!!
Though it's frustrating to hear that some other lab tours were totally incomprehensible and utterly boring.... Some people only take this as "just a bunch of high school students coming through" and just don't care... So much for an eye-opening experience to the exciting possibilities in different research fields!
Totally unacceptable...
Well, with effort and passion, hopefully they now know about optics/photonics and how optical communications work! *thumbs up*
Totally unacceptable...
Well, with effort and passion, hopefully they now know about optics/photonics and how optical communications work! *thumbs up*
The rest of ISS was fun too...didn't have time to listen to the lectures (damn it!) but joined them for lunch and dinner (surprise surprise - free food man!) and some of the socials (eg harbour cruise)...
but rather than just getting free food, I tried to sit & chat with many ISSers, about all sorts of things from the randoms to the life as a PhD research student (aka cheap labour)... even the things I learnt from Lucca Leadership (http://www.luccaleadership.org/ ). Lots of laughter & lots of smiles... but also lots of questions too. Hopefully I was able to pass on some inspiration.
"You were a really cool staffie, and lots of fun to laugh at (and with)"
hahahaha. There were other touching messages too but I won't share them here :P
*ISS:
This is a biennial pilgrimage of 140 high school students from around the world... they flock into Sydney Uni for 2 weeks and be enthused and excited (ie brain-washed) about doing science, by prominent scientists, including the great Harry Messel who insists you do physics no matter what, even if you're aiming for a Nobel Prize in biology.