The NIU Frontier Physics program has received a total of $15,000 to improve and expand its Physics on the Road show.

A $10,000 competitive grant from the American Physical Society will be used for the Physics on the Road program. The program aims to increase student involvement in The World Year of Physics 2005, which is a United Nations-endorsed international celebration of physics. The grant will be spent on equipment upgrades and travel expenses for expanding into more rural areas, primarily western and northwestern Illinois.

“Our Frontier Physics outreach program is one of a very few nationwide with an outreach coordinator,” said Patricia Sievert, program coordinator for the physics department. “This put us in a good position to win the grant, as the outreach coordinator can organize and train the students as well as plan the events.”

A $5,000 Venture Fund Grant from the NIU Foundation will be used to pay students involved in large-scale demonstrations and those bringing the Haunted Physics Laboratory to remote locations next fall, Sievert said.

The Frontier Physics program is run by a number of student volunteers.

“It takes a lot of time, but it’s not hard work. It’s actually a lot of fun,” senior physics major Michael Himes said. “[Volunteering] is a good way to get involved with the physics programs and teaching kids.”

Volunteers create experiments for the shows and help bring them to area schools. They are provided with the necessary equipment and sent out to teach kids that physics can be fun, physics graduate student Chris Hoffmann said.

“We are always looking for student volunteers who are into science,” Sievert said. “Volunteers do not have to be physics majors or even majoring in any of the sciences.”

So far, the Frontier Physics road show has been brought to about 20,000 students, from kindergarten age to seniors in high school. With these grants, the program members hope to greatly increase that number.