Interest in Physics Rising Nationally, Including at UA; Annual Contest to Attract Hundreds from Across Region

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – As roll calls are taken in high school physics classes nationwide, an increasing number of students are responding, “here.”

More high school students are taking physics than ever before, according to data released earlier this month by the American Institute of Physics. More than 200 students who regularly answer such roll calls regionally are expected to compete Feb. 2 in The University of Alabama’s annual physics contest.

“We want the contest to raise the visibility of the field as a career and study path among high-school students,” said Dr. William A. “Bill” Keel, a professor in UA’s department of physics and astronomy who chairs this year’s contest committee. “We also like to use it for student recruitment. It gives us an opportunity to showcase our program here, with lab tours and physics shows, to get prospective students interested.

“The flip side is that the contest scores sort of automatically identify the prospective students we most want to have,” said Keel.

The top two finishers in the contest’s written exam will receive four-year, in-state tuition scholarships if they choose to attend The University of Alabama.

The contest, the 31st annual, will be held in the Ferguson Center Ballroom at UA, beginning with an 8 a.m. sign-in. For a complete schedule of affiliated events, see http://bama.ua.edu/~physics/Contest2007.html. The event, which was originally organized by Dr. Stan Jones, professor of physics at UA, is typically attended by students from Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

According to a researcher with the American Institute of Physics, more than 30 percent of high school seniors have taken physics classes, more than ever before. This percentage has been rising steadily since the mid-1980s.

Girls and minorities are also enrolling in high school physics classes at higher rates, according to the recently released data. The researcher attributes these surges to the wider variety of physics classes now made available to students.

The number of physics bachelor’s degrees earned in the United States is also on the rise, up more than 31 percent since 2000, to over 5,000 students in 2005. At The University of Alabama, eight students earned bachelor’s degrees in physics during 2005-2006, the most UA awarded in a single academic year since 1995.

The number of UA students declaring physics as their major has also increased, even beyond what could be attributed to UA’s overall enrollment increases. Between 2001-2004, 18 UA students, on average, were majoring in physics. In 2005, 33 students did so, and in this latest academic year, UA reports 40 physics majors.

Keel and Dr. Pieter Visscher, a professor of physics at UA who chaired the contest for some 10 years, both expressed concerns that attributes of the No Child Left Behind Act could put the recent gains in high school physics enrollment at risk and could hamper enrollment in the state’s high school physics classes. For example, physics is not part of the Alabama High School Graduation Exam, the measure the state opts to use in assessing standards related to No Child Left Behind. This, the faculty members point out, deemphasizes the field.

Visscher said discoveries by physicists often lead to new technologies later implemented by engineers and others. “If there were no physicists, existing technologies would be maintained and improved, but few new technologies would be developed,” Visscher said.

Physics enrollment declined during the 1980s and 1990s as globalization made it tougher to recruit American students into physics, Visscher said.

“Whereas 40 years ago an American going into physics competed mostly with other Americans, starting in the 1980s he or she had to compete with everyone in the world.”

Employment opportunities for physicists exist in many high tech industries, as well as research and teaching opportunities in colleges and universities.

Following the UA contest, books, trophies, plaques, and medals will be awarded to the top individual and team finishers. In addition to the scholarship offers made to the contest’s two winners, students who do well in the competition will be invited to apply to the E. Scott Barr scholarship program, which awards scholarships to students majoring in physics

UA’s department of physics and astronomy is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the “USA Today” Academic All American Team.