Are hoverboards real? What’s lightning? Can we time travel? Can I predict where a rainbow will form? What is electricity, and who were the first electricians?
FLEET’s new ‘Ask the physicists’ Facebook page, introduced in 2021, encourages schoolkids, parents and others to ask their hardest, most-baffling questions, which FLEET members find an answer for.
FLEET members, affiliates and partners are enlisted to help spread the page, or to help answer questions, developing valuable science-communication skills.
The new platform enlists the pervasive power of social media to counteract the school lockdowns, encouraging primary and secondary teachers and students to ask the most curious or baffling scientific questions.
FLEET members research and compose comprehensive, clear answers to the questions, providing members with another opportunity to practice their scientific-communications and engagement skills. FLEET also posts questions and answers, based on topical science news and other engaging physical sciences content.
The new page is also a useful platform to alert teachers to FLEET outreach and schools’ resources and programs, promoting the availability of FLEET members to visit classrooms, online engagement, and home-science resources.
The initial focus has been on Victorian primary teacher Facebook groups, and it will be expanded to Australia-wide teacher groups, primary and secondary, in 2022.
Does a soft drink can weigh more, less or the same after it is opened? What is an atom? FLEET members compose comprehensive, clear answers to public questions, as well as repurposing existing science-communications content (in this case, from the National Science Quiz and a primary school project) to maximise impact.