Once a month, hundreds of high school students crowd the corridors of the School of Physics and Astronomy during Visiting Days hosted by the School. The visits begin with a lecture given by a faculty member on a topic at the forefront of current research (see list; see also past years). The lectures, accompanied by demonstrations, slides, and movies, emphasize the place of pure physics in the intellectual sphere and that of applied physics in the Israeli economy. The students are then taken on tours of the School's research and teaching laboratories, where physicists introduce them to their specialties and show them where experimental research is done.
Despite the increasing demand for physics research, enrollments have remained constant or even decreased in number. Trained physicists are needed both in the applied sphere, where new technology requires new physics, and in the pure sphere, where basic problems require new ideas. The problem has arisen perhaps because of the perceived difficulty of physics, perhaps because the close link between physics and engineering is not well known. The Visiting Days aim to stimulate students' curiosity about the physical world, and at the same time to show them that for them, too, a career in physics can be fulfilling and rewarding.
For practical reasons, the Visiting Days are limited to students who are already studying physics for bagrut, thus having shown an interest in the subject. Reaching younger students, however, is even more important. With this aim, several faculty members have volunteered to visit high schools and there to meet 10th graders who have yet to choose their bagrut subjects. These lectures, like the Visiting Days, have been received enthusiastically by teachers and administrators who are eager themselves to attract the best students to physics.
Send e-mail to bqs@julian.tau.ac.il.