When Soft Skills are Hard: Teens Learn More than STEM at USU Physics Day at Lagoon

Many high school and middle school STEM teachers in the Intermountain West know the promise of attending USU Physics Day at Lagoon each May is a great student motivator. Held every year since 1990 — save for a two-year pandemic pause in 2020 and 2021 — the STEM-infused event is a welcome harbinger of spring and the end of the school year.

“We look forward to the amusement park visit all year long,” said Anthony Tuitupou, 7th and 8th grade science teacher at Salt Lake City’s Pacific Heritage Academy, who brought students to the May 9 Davis County event. “But our visit to Lagoon isn’t just about rides. It’s about participating in the varied competitions and learning activities the day offers.”

Early in the school year, Tuitupou guides students in thinking about and executing STEM projects for USU Physics Day’s ride design competition. Designing a futuristic rollercoaster or tilt-a-whirl helps students learn about scientific principles, he says.

“Students prepare projects from the ground up, which means they sometimes have to abandon original plans and try a fresh approach,” Tuitupou said. “They learn there’s a lot of trial and error in science.”

But the biggest challenge of all, he says, isn’t science — rather, it’s communicating the science.

“People forget how scary and intimidating it is for young people to explain their ideas to adults,” Tuitupou said. “That’s what keeps me bringing students back to Physics Day each year. It’s really valuable for students to gain experience in presenting their projects. It builds their confidence.”

And that confidence can be tested: Especially when your innovative Ferris wheel gains so much momentum its water feature’s plastic tubing suddenly comes loose and sprays the judges, who happen to be USU Science Dean Michelle Baker and Physics Professor Ludger Scherliess. Oops.

Another student, new to Tuitupou’s class and the United States, made her presentation in Spanish (“Fuerza … aceleración ... movimiento …”), with English translation help from a classmate.

“These are formative experiences for these students, even if they’re sometimes unconventional or don’t always go as planned,” said J.R. Dennison, USU Physics professor and an organizer and founder of USU Physics Day at Lagoon. “The point is to create an encouraging environment, where students can express themselves without fear of messing up. Science is about exploring new things and making a lot of mistakes.”

East High School teacher ShaunMicheal Bartschi brought students from his AP statistics class in Salt Lake City, who’ve been working on a collaborative NASA-funded atmospheric waves project with USU Physics students and faculty. The teen scholars staffed a special display at Physics Day to highlight the machine learning research project.

“Apart from talking about the project with their parents, this was one of the few times my students have had an opportunity to share what they’d been working on with the public,” Bartschi said. “They enjoyed explaining the scientific concepts to Physics Day participants. It was fun for them to demonstrate aspects of their project, alongside USU students, to exhibit visitors.”

Other Physics Day participants who prepared for the event throughout the school year were the Physics Bowl competitors — college-bound high school upperclassmen, who vied for scholarships in the intense competition.

About a dozen three-person teams from high schools throughout the Intermountain West participated in the day’s academic competition. The winning team, with members Ethan Chadwick, Sam Kunz and Justus Seeley, was from Cache Valley, Utah’s Green Canyon High School and coached by AP Physics teacher and USU alum Mark Cowley (BS’04). This was the second year in a row a Green Canyon team took the top prize.

“As a physics teacher, I think it’s important to help students understand and see the growth they experience by being in an upper-level, advanced placement class,” Cowley said. “Something like the Physics Bowl is an opportunity to realize they have learned a ton of material over the course of the year. The competition gives students the confidence to see they are ready to take the next step and chase their dreams.”

A second team from Green Canyon, with members Zachary Barrus, Bailey Huebner and Brandt Johnson, also coached by Cowley, took second place in the Physics Bowl. A team from Mountain Ridge High School in Herrriman, Utah, with team members Noah Booker, Tate Johnson and Landon Visser, captured third place, and a team from Weber High School in Pleasant View, Utah, with team members Megan Brewster, Cambrie Browne and Megan Haves, came in fourth place.

Members of the first place Green Canyon team each received $4,000 scholarships to Utah State, and members of the second place Green Canyon team each received $2,000 scholarships to USU. These scholarships, to be disbursed over four years, will be added to any other USU academic scholarships these incoming first-year students may be awarded.

Beyond taking a challenging AP course to prepare for the competition, how did winning Physics Bowl participant Sam Kunz get ready and stay focused for the formidable contest?

“Caffeine and flashcards,” said the graduating Green Canyon High senior. “No, seriously, caffeine and flashcards.”

USU Physics Day at Lagoon is led by USU’s Department of Physics and Idaho National Laboratory. The annual, day-long event draws some 8,000 students from schools in Utah and surrounding states. The gathering is supported by multiple sponsors.