UMW Physics ‘PING’ Program Inspires High Schoolers, Empowers Future Educators
Tristan Towle and Zubair Mohammadzai take turns lobbing colorful cotton balls at a black canvas hanging in a University of Mary Washington parking deck. The splatters they create with washable paint remind Tristan, a junior at Brooke Point High School, of fireworks, but Zubair has another theory.
“We’ve been talking about stars, red giants and white dwarves,” said the Osbourn Park High School senior, thinking back to the astrophysics lesson led by UMW faculty members as well as current physics majors Hannah Steele, Aliya Ather, and CJ Hulleman. “They look like different colors based on temperature.”
The activity, combining both astronomy and art, is part of Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation (PING), introduced at Mary Washington this summer as an expansion of a program that began at Michigan State University (MSU). For two weeks, regional high schoolers curious about majoring in physics in college are exploring astrophysics, electronics, and computer coding, under the guidance of UMW Physics faculty members.
Supported by a Fund for Mary Washington Impact Grant totaling $4,500, the program also provides stipends for three UMW student mentors majoring in physics and open to teaching at the high school level.
“This program would’ve expanded my avenues if I participated in it during high school,” said Aliya, a Mary Washington sophomore who is serving as a PING mentor this summer. “I’m excited to share my knowledge about physics but also how to collaborate in this field and how important it is to integrate the creative side into physics.”
UMW Professor and Chair of Physics Matt Fleenor estimates that over half of high school physics classrooms in the U.S. are taught by someone without a degree in the field. “So, our aim is to cultivate interest in physics locally among high school students while supporting the potential futures of high school physics instructors,” he said.
Dr. Fleenor reached out to high school physics teachers in the greater Fredericksburg area to recruit applicants, resulting in a cohort of six students in Mary Washington’s inaugural PING program. Statistics show that 80% of UMW physics majors come from a 90-mile radius, he said. “They grow up here, come to school here, and end up teaching or working at Dahlgren or somewhere close by.”
Kenya Wallach, former math and science supervisor for Stafford County Public Schools, had long wanted to bring such a program to the region. Last fall, she and Dr. Fleenor were surprised to discover they were seated in the same row at a conference in Houston, listening to Ms. Wallach’s 16-year-old daughter, Emma, speak about her experiences in PING at MSU.
“From the time my children were little, we talked about physics and mathematics and how they touch every aspect of our lives,” said Ms. Wallach, who leads PING’s parent group, Promoting Opportunities for the Next Generation (PONG). All three of her children participated in the program, and now her 19-year-old daughter is earning a Ph.D. in physics at MSU. “In order to see yourself doing something, you have to see people like you succeeding at it.”
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Emma, who is serving as a volunteer mentor, and her mother designed the paintball splatter activity and helped Fleenor create a curriculum that gives participants the chance to create circuits, make measurements, plot graphs, learn Python coding, and explore evolving star clusters using cutting-edge technology. The students are also touring the UMW campus and learning about research Mary Washington students and faculty are doing in the Irene Piscopo Rodgers ’59 Summer Science Institute.
Hannah, a senior mentor who aspires to teach physics after graduating from Mary Washington, learned from Ms. Wallach how to employ an explicit inquiry-based instruction model. By writing in reflection journals and engaging in role-play, the mentors learned how to provide the high school students with a solid foundation for the material and ask guided questions to help them reach their own conclusions.
“It allows them to struggle productively until they find the answer on their own,” said Hannah, who received a Robert Noyce Teaching Scholarship through UMW’s College of Education partnership with the National Science Foundation.
Alexander Rosas, a Stafford High School senior, experienced his own “a-ha moment” while engaging in the physics painting activity. His strategy? Tossing cotton balls dripping with paint to create a grouping resembling a stellar cluster and then reusing them to create a contrast on the other side of the canvas.
“I wanted to show that the amount of energy put into an object correlates to its outcome,” said Alexander, who hopes PING will help him make connections within the physics community in Fredericksburg. “This project showed me a different perspective of what physics could be.”
UMW’s Fund for Mary Washington Impact Grants program is made possible through donors’ gifts to the Fund for Mary Washington. These gifts are vital to the University’s ability to improve the student experience and support faculty, providing crucial flexibility to respond to emerging challenges and seize opportunities as they arise. When alumni, parents, friends, faculty, and staff give to the Fund for Mary Washington, they are choosing to be part of a community that is committed to giving back and making the world a better place – enabling students to make positive change through programs like the Fund for Mary Washington Impact Grants.
-Article written by Assistant Director of Advancement Communications Jill Graziano Laiacona ’04
-Photography by Karen Pearlman ’99/K Pearlman Photography and UMW digital communication major Katie Van Houten ’27
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