The Chapter Showcase event at PhysCon enables SPS members from all over the country to meet one another and exchange ideas. Chapters that sign up for a booth can use posters, photos, and interesting demos to highlight some of the fun and engaging activities they’ve organized. During the showcase, chapters get new ideas from each other and have an opportunity to swap shirts, stickers, and pins.

At the 2019 Physics Congress, our SPS chapter brought shirts, demos, and our favorite chapter tradition—the aluminati. These small triangles of aluminum are decorated with the image of an eye and have a strong magnet on the back. On campus, our chapter hides the aluminati throughout the physics department. They must be hidden in plain sight, and anyone who finds one hides it again for someone else to find. The game has been part of our tradition for so long that the triangle design has become the chapter logo. During the 2019 Chapter Showcase event, we hid eight aluminati around the exhibit hall for other chapters to find and take home with them to engage people to interact, and we also brought stickers, pins, and magnets featuring the logo to share with other chapters.

Packing physics demos to bring was no easy task. Not many of our demos fit in suitcases or transport well by plane. Others raise eyebrows as they go through airport security. We ultimately chose small demos that wouldn’t raise suspicions about our luggage, like a gravity sling. Looking ahead to the 2022 Physics Congress, we plan to explore shipping options to see if we can send our demos in advance.

In addition to putting on our own demos during the showcase, we enjoyed viewing those presented by other chapters as we browsed the exhibits. Another fun way to participate in the event, celebrate our physics community, and pick up some awesome new swag is to enter the shirt design contest and swap shirts with other chapters. If your chapter is particularly proud of its logo or looking for a reason to design a new one, this is the perfect challenge.

We hope to see you at the 2022 Chapter Showcase—whether it’s to show off a shirt design, stickers, demos, or something else!

To join in the excitement at the 2022 Physics Congress, sign up to receive more information about the Congress at spsnational.org/sigmapisigma/congress/2022, and register to attend at physcon2022.completereg.com/default.aspx.