Though many physicists are engaged in outreach, the variety of activities in which they are engaged is surprisingly small. For those venturing beyond the standard public lectures and science cafes there is currently nowhere to disseminate the knowledge they gain from both the successful and failed public outreach attempts. This project will fund highly innovative outreach activities and their successes and failures will add significantly to the body of outreach knowledge. The associated Outreach Guide will disseminate these best practices to others interested in beginning their own programs.
The goal of the American Physical Society Outreach Program is to enable innovative outreach projects that aim to bring physics to the public outside of the classroom. These projects will not only directly affect the target audience of such projects, but will also affect the climate surrounding public outreach and engagement. Despite the benefits of public outreach there are many obstacles in the way of those interested in starting such programs. The program will help scientists surmount these barriers.
