The Department of Physics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Saturday the 23rd of July held an Open Day for Senior High Schools across Ghana. The event was both in-person and on Zoom to ensure the participation of as many schools as possible. Several Senior High Schools from the Ashanti Region made it to the beautiful KNUST campus to take part in the program. Some of the Secondary Schools that made it to the event include St Louis Girls Secondary School, Osei Adutwum Secondary School, Kumasi High Secondary School, Kumasi Academy Senior High School, Armed Forces Senior High Technical School, Juaben Senior High School and others. Over 500 students and teachers participated in the Open Day.

The Physics Open Day for Senior Secondary School (PODS 22) was aimed at introducing Senior Secondary School students to the broad spectrum of careers and research areas available in the field of Physics. It also sought to stimulate the interest of Senior High School students in Physics, which is severely lacking in Ghana.

During the Open Day, the students were engaged in performing experiments such as the simple and coupled pendulums, calculating refractive index, viscosity, measuring capacitance and measuring the specific heat capacity of liquids. The students were also introduced to the varied research areas in the Department of Physics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), including, Geophysics, Biomedical Physics, Electronic Physics, Materials Science, Computing and Applied Mathematical. Students got the opportunity to operate equipment for gathering data in various fields and experienced some of the innovative products produced by researchers in the Department of Physics.

Speaking at the program, Dr Henry Martin, a member of the organizing committee reiterated the commitment of the Department of Physics to ensuring such programs are held annually to stimulate the interest of a future generation of scientists. Head of Department, Physics, Prof. Tamakloe expressed the hope that a lot of the students will make their way into the Department of Physics in the near future. He informed the students and teachers that KNUST admissions were open. Prof Tamakloe inspired the students to observe and take note of Physics in their environment wherever they may find themselves. Prof Aboagye-Menyeh, a renowned Professor and the foundational Provost of the College of Science enlightened the students about the variety of careers that can be pursued with a BSc Physics degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

The students were elated about the program and overwhelmingly expressed the opinion that their perception of the discipline of Physics had forever been transformed. Prior to the Open Day, they believed Physics was a difficult subject to master but they were now aware of the universality of Physics in the environment around them.