Students get a chance to engage in authentic scientific research and prove to themselves they are more than capable of incorporating STEM fields in their future plans and goals.
Max Besong is a physics, math, and computer science teacher in the Bald Eagle Area School District with a passion for giving high school students the opportunity for hands-on experience in scientific research techniques and processes. Max has been teaching for 11 years and his favorite part of each school year is the research project his honors physics students participate in, in partnership with Penn State CSATS and the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science. Using NASA data sets on incoming and outgoing electromagnetic radiation on Earth, Max’s students write code to generate graphs and maps to analyze how these variables compare across regions and change over time. The project culminates in the creation of technical posters and a trip to the Penn State University Park campus to showcase their research.
Watch a video that showcases the honors physics project in collaboration with Penn State.