The Physics Enrichment Camp (PEC) 2018 attracted over 660 students from 32 secondary schools and 14 junior colleges. Jointly organised by the Department of Physics and the NUS Physics Society, and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the camp was held over two days for each level—secondary and junior college—of students.

Interesting live demonstrations as well as talks on black holes, imaging of dynamic proteins and wave-particle duality of atoms awaited participants. They were also brought on a lab tour to be exposed to more high-level physics investigations.

Specially designed experiments were set up for participants before the camp by undergraduates with assistance from departmental lab officers. Participants had a fun time exploring physics with such hands-on activities. The quiz session at the end of the camp had students thinking hard about solving problems.

Dr Nidhi Sharma, the organiser of the camp, remarked, “This year’s PEC talks gave a glimpse of physics research from the microscopic level to the scale of light years. The opening talk ‘Black Holes, Hawking Radiation and the Information Paradox’ focused on the research of the late Prof Stephen Hawking. The tour to the research labs hopefully gave participants a better picture of research in different areas. The hands-on activities on simple physics concepts served as an enriching experience for them.”

The feedback received from participants has been positive. “All of the activities are fun! Learning through experiments is more effective than just reading books and theories,” commented one junior college student.