The Centaurus Physics Club is a group of students from Lafayette, Colorado who like to further their understanding of the physics and STEM fields through projects, competitions, and having fun. The club started in 2018 around the shared passion of physics and other related topics, and since then we have worked on several projects to challenge and build our knowledge, ingenuity, and problem-solving skills. In the past 2019/2020 academic year, our projects took us to Denver and California and took our ideas across the Atlantic ocean—to Germany and New Zealand. Even at a high school level, physics can bring wonderful educational opportunities and life experiences. Our goal for this club is not only to have fun “doing physics,” but to create an inviting environment that welcomes students of all levels who are interested. Through this club, we want to expand the minds and enrich the lives of Centaurus students.

Some projects and competitions we have participated in include CERN’s Beamline for Schools competition, Dawn Aerospace’s Paint Our Plane contest, and NASA’s JPL Invention Challenge. We have also visited the Colorado State Capitol to encourage state legislators to recognize the importance of public schools, and we are currently working on mesosphere research with Dawn Aerospace’s space plane.