Physics Major Patrick Barrett leads physics demos during Progressive Field STEM Day

Patrick Barrett, physics major, president of the CSU’s chapter of the Society of Physics Students (SPS) loves physics outreach. He has been first participating and then leading the “Physics Fridays” program, the student-led interactive physics outreach initiative supported by National SPS for more than the last three years. 

His outreach experience includes participating in SPS-led interactive demonstrations on the physics of the Solar Eclipse (Spring 2024) and physics of Sound Waves (Spring 2025) at eight various branches of Cleveland Public Library (CPL). Patrick also co-wrote a successful proposal to the American Institute of Physics for another year of “Physics Fridays” outreach at the CPL branches and Campus International School (CIS), this time based on Physics of Light (Spring 2026). He led the demo preparation, student training, and five successful Friday outreach events at CPL branches and CIS. He loved it all. 

Still a public library setting with demos for 15-25 visitors/branch or a middle school setting with demos for 45 students seemed not significant enough to him. He wanted more. The opportunity presented itself to do a physics outreach on a much larger scale. Not a CPL branch, not a school, but a… stadium. On April 29, 2026, Patrick together with Dr. Streletzky joined STEM Outreach Specialist Lorenzo Pearson for the Progressive Field STEM Day. For more than two hours, Patrick showed the demos on polarization, dispersion, reflection, and refraction of light to waves of schoolchildren and their teachers (a total of about 250-300 visitors). Just let the pictures tell the story!