Workshop participants experiencing what it feels like to have your head in the clouds...
PQM academic Dr Gunnar Möller and NATS Outreach Officer Megan Bell have run a day of fun outreach activities revolving around phase transitions and properties of materials. Workshops were run at the Discovery Planet grassroots outreach project on 25 March 2024, and on the University of Kent campus, within a stone’s throw of our labs, on the following day.
Playing with liquid nitrogen they demonstrate a number of stunning effects, and gave school kids the opportunity to get hands on with some exotic materials that they would not see in their usual school curriculum. During the day, school children experience exotic states of materials such as superconductors, magnets and ferrofluids, and learn about phase transitions along the way. As stars of the show, the kids particularly enjoyed playing with ferrofluid to demonstrate the presence of magnetic fields, as well as seeing a high-temperature superconductor levitating freely above a magnetic track.
Certainly, it was an enjoyable day for the team to be able to inspire so many children by experiencing exotic materials. A great thanks to the Discovery Planet team of Nicky Hildesley, Xanthe Pitt, and Vicky Mason (previously our colleague at U-Kent), Jaron James for the wonderful photograhy, the support team at U Kent with Spartaco Landi and Ian Ross from the labs, and our former student Naivasha Williams to help deliver the workshops on the day.
You can find further coverage and photos of this event via the University of Kent News room and in a LinkedIn Post of the Discovery Planet team.
