Last week I had an exciting opportunity to interact with the high school students at the Inspira Bizitzak (Inspiring Lives) a science outreach event organized by the science museum in San Sebastian. The event was for young students hence it was a good challenge to explain spintronics. I aimed more towards giving them an essence, probably not even the taste, just the smell of the subject.
The day started with talks by the researchers in the morning followed by a poster session. I sat with students in the morning listening to different researchers not realizing that I too have become one.
The event unfolded and soon the poster session started as you can see in the pictures, I was trying to explain them spintronics. Here, I used human hair and human figure nails to give them some idea how tiny the magnetic storage now has become. Although there was some language barrier but still the students were very enthusiastic as if they wanted to learn everything in one day.
The discussions with students went beyond physics or spintronics, a lot of discussions were about being creative or thinking about new ideas in any field. During the session an excellent example of zipper came up and how it has changed a lot of things around us from clothing to tents to covers. The day came to an end with wonderful discussions and curious faces.
I left the place with a feeling that, it is simple ideas with great implications that change the world.