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On July 16, 1945 the world changed with the explosion of the first atomic bomb at the Trinity site, near Socorro, New Mexico. This module will visit a number of sites in New Mexico and Arizona which have played a seminal role in the “atomic age”. This module has no prerequisites.

Some of the sites we plan to visit:

• Trinity site at Jornada del Muerto, on the White Sands Missile Range, NM – Site of the world’s first nuclear explosion.
• National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque, NM – See the history of the atomic age! Also on display: Radium suppositories – need I say more?
• Titan Air Museum near Tucson, AZ – A relic of the Cold War: an underground silo with actual missile casings still housed in their launch bays.
• Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, NM – Artifacts from the Manhattan Project, as well a national security gallery relevant to the atomic age.

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Astronomy and astrogeology, including the study of meteorites, continue to play a fundamental role in both our cultural and scientific evolution. Students will visit the famous Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, and two craters in northeast Arizona. This module has no prerequisites and has an additional fee of $25.

Some of the places we will visit during this module:

• Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ – Percival Lowell gained notoriety for his notion that there was life on Mars, and his role in the discovery of Pluto in 1910.
• Sunset Crater near Flagstaff, AZ – Remnants of a volcano which erupted around 1100AD.
• Meteor Crater near Winslow, AZ – About 50,000 years ago a huge meteor, estimated to weigh several hundred thousand tons, fell from the sky in what is now northern Arizona, leaving a crater that is about 700 feet deep and almost a mile across.
• Slide Rock near Sedona, AZ (in lush Oak Creek Canyon) – A natural rock slide that gives you a butt-jarring ride while you learn about frictional forces – albeit more painfully than in the classroom!

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Moab offers a wealth of natural beauty, including Arches National Park and the Colorado River. Students in this module will learn about fluid flow during a one-day rafting trip on the Colorado. We’ll also visit Arches National Park and examine some of its well-known features, such as the physical blueprint of the arches and Balanced Rock, from a physics perspective. This module has no prerequisites and there is an additional $25 fee for this module.

Some of the places we will visit during this module:

• Colorado River near Moab, UT – One-day of rafting (weather permitting) on a 13-mile stretch of the Colorado river while learning about fluid flow.
• Arches National Park near Moab, UT – A day in Arches…looking at Arches, and learning a little of the physics that makes them possible. Participants will also be able to go on a secluded hike in the Fiery Furnace, an area of natural rock fins – the geologic precursors to arches.

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