This file contains: I. GENERAL NOTES FOR ALL SHOWS II. NOTES ON SPECIFIC SHOWS AND SPECIFIC DEMOS ======================================================== I. GENERAL NOTES FOR ALL SHOWS ======================================================== Audience participation -Get kids up front to help with demos when possible. -Ask kids what will happen before doing demo. -Ask kids anything. They LOVE to get involved. -Repeat some demos. Some occur quickly. -Pick kids throughout the room not just up front. -Consider doing some outside after the show. Example is bubbles which worked well this way one year. - Stage Layout -everyone introduced at beginning and bows at the end -Pay attention to background (including color of shirt) so things are visible -Should be wear black shirts for all demos??? And put on lab coats when needed? -Worry about lighting. Should all lights be off/on. Who adjusts lights. WE sometimes need to get around the room with the lights off - a problem. Use a spot light from the back of the room when appropriate. -Have one person dedicated to lights. The presenter is responsible for telling the light person to turn the light on/off. Presesntation -Watch the technical language. Terms we use regularly will be lost on most people if not defined (especially kids). -On the other end of the spectrum - don't forget to explain the demo. -Everyone but the presenter should be sitting and quiet to avoid distractions. -Another options is to have the host talk while demos are being set up. This has worked well. The key is to not set up demos while other demos are going on. -Demos need to be high enough to be visible. (Not easy sometimes - but impt.) -Avoid deadtime at all costs. If demo is not working SOMEONE must interject bantor even it is about the demo not working - just keep the audience interested. -When people (especially kids) ask questions, repeat the question to make sure everyone hears it. Other -Don't overlook aspects of the demo that are just plain fun. Try to keep in mind that we may be trying to demostrate some clever or profound principle, but the audience may end up being enthrawled something we take for granted. For example they always love it when we put power or water spray in the laser beam when we are doing light modulation. -survey audience - find out how they know about show -get their names on email distribution list for future shows. ======================================================== II. NOTES ON SPECIFIC SHOWS AND SPECIFIC DEMOS ======================================================== FALL 02 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- 1. First time we did a real rehearsal the day before the show and it made a HUGE difference. When it was time for the show, all of us were very well prepared. Explanations were very good. Problems with apparatuses were worked out. Questions from audience were dealt with well. We all had fun!!!! 2. Only got students up front twice. Need to do better. 3. Leslie and Ray did not talk loud enough. What to do? Should we use mic? 4. Paper pull and stand. Not a spectacular one with an exciting ending, yet everyone in the audience was amazed and attentive. One of the best demos!! 5. Flying Disk and Rolling Disk - both well made, easy to see. Good visual demos. Popular. 6. Hinged Fall - It worked the first time, but we need to fix this appratus to make it more reliable. (tighten hinges and level board) 7. Bat and Toothpick - get a real bat. We used a board and it work fine, but... Also, need to make pivot high off board so that when toothpick breaks one can see the pivot jump up or down. 8. Jim's vacuum gun worked well and consistently. Trick was to use one layer of thick Al. 9. Rocket Cart - worked well. Important to have rider try the extinguisher before the show so they know the sounds, etc. 10. Turbulence - Work very well. Again, not a spectacular one, but whole audience was quiet and paying attention. They were fascinated!! 11. Door Prizes - A good idea. Kids had much fun writing their names on tickets and enjoyed getting prizes. Need to make it clear to person at entrance what the intent of the adult prize is (something for teachers) and make sure they convey this to people coming in. This was not done well. SPRING 02 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- 1. VG - backlighting person's head when doing hair raising worked well. 2. Having person dedicated to lights worked well. One less awkward part of show. 3. Having host talk while demos were being set up worked well. (Rather than people trying to set up while other demos were being worked on.) 4. Projection. Slide projector with 1cm aperature (cardboard with 1cm hole) in front worked extremely well to project sharp images of things. (stream of water, fluid flow) FALL 01 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- 1. Work on filling the gaps between demos....dead air is just that deadly. Shelly did a great job trying to talk to the spectators and keep them from talking to on another. 2. When Brad explained the dancing fire demo he used a lot of technical terms that were not explained and might have been left out...not sure here actually. See, you want to get the Physics across after all it is a Physics demo show but it is hard to be accurate and speak common english. Conversely, some of the demos had very little or no explanation and a thorough explanation was not demonstrated. Now, in defense of all that have participated I too had this problem with Physics demos (and Physics in general). I think preapproved and practiced explanations need to be incorporated and practiced as much as the actual set ups themselves. I felt that way when I did them before and I do believe that it will help with conveying the physics. 3. As far as clarity everyone did well. Art was very good. He talked to the crowd very affectively and got them involved. Well done. 4. The shield for the liquid nitrogen stuff was a good idea...the critique here is that maybe hinges could be added to the three pieces so that students do not have to hold them and have Dr. Reid pushing them out of the crowds line of site!!:) Remember simple..it is better to have one person do the demos with a shield that stands by itself than one person do demos while two others hold shields and get pushed around by the professor! haha 5. The two spheres demo- I love this demo but the people have time to think about what is going on when you evacuate the air out of the spheres. If you have two of them maybe you could have one with air and one without and then bring up two volunteers ensuring that the kid gets the sphere with the air inside! More dramatic possibly and more of a surprise! 6. colored water in aquarium - Be careful when releasing the hot and cold colored water. This must be done in such a way so as to avoid mixing. SPRING 01 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- FALL 00 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- Notes from on improvements. OVERALL - Sometimes ask kids what they think will happen. - pay more attention to background Rotating Water (water on board spun overhead - add coloring!! Splitting Ice - make sure it makes noise when it falls. - ask kids what they think will happen. Can Crush - wear black shirts so steam is visible. Standing Waves on Long Spring - stand on chairs so spring has screen as background BOO (tranmission and reflection of light - two different people visible depending on lighting)- good idea, but had bugs - practice SPRING 00 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- FALL 99 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- SPRING 99 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- Highlights for laughs and "oooo ahhhh"s. Jim's bubbles Spraying water on laser beam Andy's voice actuated light bulb ("intelligence test6) Placing many balloons on kid JR's crituque ============= Overall ------- ----------------------------------------------- -Having a run-through was critical for layout and other logistics -Having one person do intros was *big* improvement helped flow kept us and audience focussed -We got many kids involved - good NEXTIME - pick kids throughout auditorium (we did too many in front) -Have someone in back with big signs to hold up to the presenters - like "louder", "repeat demo" -Presenters kept to their seats unless presenting - really important. -Some people need to Speak louder - figure this out in rehearsal -Explanations were, for the most part, simple and correct. We went over some in rehearsal and this helped. -We took Jim's bubbles outside afterward and kids had much fun. -We had a line of kids for John and Andy's soap film and kids had much fun. -Some demos need repeating e.g., Lyden Jar -Some demos hard to see lift up or use platform/stage. Perhaps we should get a stage? -Need to be enthusiastic - practice beforehand -What about adding musics? Specific demos -------------- - 3D slide show worked well too long needs explanation have audience take off glasses to see the blurry image explain that we have 2 eyes, etc -laser have laser bounce off *many* mirrors explain some things about light use water spray to show beam maybe have kid or adult trace beam?? -Sunset raise demo up so all can see gradually add more milk -Van de Graaff & electrostatic charge repeat Lyden jar 2 or 3 times we put many balloons on one kid which was funny and worked well Susanne spoke while here and two others added balloons NEXTIME: One person that is *not* putting balloons on speaks. -Sound actuated light Andy brought kids up front and had them speak. Light goes on when people speak. Andy had to adjust threshold level for each kid, but one could interpret his adjustments as turning the light on and off. That is, he should not make adjustments while kid is speaking. FALL 98 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- SPRING 98 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW ----------------------------------------------- FALL 97 NOTES ON DEMO SHOW -----------------------------------------------