An Online (But Hands-On!) Nuclear Science Camp: A Collaboration Between K-12 Teachers and a University Professor

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous disruption of hands-on outreach activities intended to introduce students to careers in physics and related fields. The CENTAUR Nuclear Medicine and Science Summer Camp for middle and high school students held at Florida State University's Panama City (FSU-PC) Campus in the summers of 2018 and 2019 was forced online by the pandemic for the summer of 2020. For the summer 2020 camp, Denise Newsome and Paige Johnston, two teachers from the Deane Bozeman School (a public K-12 school in the rural Panhandle north of Panama City) collaborated with a professor from the FSU Physics Department (PC) to preserve many of the hands-on elements from the 2018 and 2019 face-to-face camps. With the support of CENTAUR, the FSU Physics Department and the FSU-PC staff, the online camp not only preserved many hands-on elements but also included innovations that will improve future face-to-face camps and provide the option of offering online camps to students in the Panhandle who are located too far from Panama City to commute to the face-to-face camps. Dr. Cottle will be joined by, Denise Newsome and Paige Johnston, high school educators for the Bay District Schools.