A total team effort from Miami University, Oxford Physics Quest (OxPQ), the Oxford Lane Library, and multiple local schools and organizations led to a free immersive scientific program for youth the first week of June.

The Quantum STEM Camp: Lane to Lab was produced by OxPQ, a volunteer-driven organization and supported by Miami’s Department of Physics, the Oxford Lions Club, Oxford Kiwanis and Summa San. Area teachers Heidi Schran (Talawanda High School) and Jacqui Montgomery (Miami Trace High School) served as lead instructors.

Oxford resident John Kinne, a two-time Miami physics graduate in 1975 (B.S.) and 1977 (M.S.) with a diverse career in IT, technical writing and teaching, leads OxPQ and served as the event’s producer. That role included creating the idea, approaching the Oxford Lane Library and Akiko Urayama, its youth services coordinator.

“We posted it on a Saturday morning, and come Sunday afternoon, (the middle school edition) was full, and we had students going onto a wait list,” Kinne said. “The library would track how many students complete the workshop as a measure of its effectiveness. Heidi Schran really engaged the students and did a wonderful job."

OxPQ has also worked with a professor in the Dominican Republic on a similar program there.

Kinne credits his grandsons, Evan and Seth, as part of his lead motivations. He also noted how increasingly dependent society is on scientific understanding in both long- and short-term facets of daily life, from climate change to recent cyclosporiasis cases in Michigan.

“They should grow up in society with appreciation for rigorous scientific investigation, and that’s the motto of our physics quest group,” he said. “Science doesn’t seem as complicated as it is detailed. You have to keep track of lots and lots of details to make sense of something. The details are not all that complicated. Having a background in critical thinking is about coming to the right conclusion.”

Heidi Schran demonstrates how microwaved marshmallows can show the wavelength of a microwave oven.

Is light a particle or a wave?

Those seven words, presented as a foundational question in quantum physics, established the week’s agenda.

The students were tasked with utilizing the scientific method, first to think how sand might flow through slits in a paper cup, and whether that experiment gives a clue about what to expect when light flows through narrow slits.

Graduating to ping pong balls, laser pointers and more, Schran described the difference among refraction, interference, and diffraction. 

Friday’s grand finale featured a tour of Miami’s physics labs and included the following:

• Cryogenic equipment used to explore superconductivity
• Systems for studying atoms, electrons, and surfaces
• Laser setups for measuring tiny changes in materials 
• Imaging tools that reveal structures too small to see with light  

The workshop’s success grew from a genuine partnership among Oxford volunteers, the Oxford Lane Library, and Miami University’s College of Arts and Science's Department of Physics. 

Oxford Physics Quest intends to expand this effort with annual summer workshops and additional community‑based programs. For more information on this or other OxPQ initiatives, please contact John Kinne at jdkinne@oxpq.com.