Game On for Science: PhysicsFest Blends Play and Discovery
The hiss of liquid nitrogen and the thud of a frozen marshmallow shattering under a hammer echoed throughout Small Hall during this year’s PhysicsFest, William & Mary’s annual hands-on celebration of physics.
Each fall during Homecoming weekend, PhysicsFest invites alumni, students, and the Williamsburg community to explore the wonders of science through interactive exhibits and demonstrations.
“PhysicsFest is a way to get people interested in and thinking about physics and show how much fun it can be,” stated Claire Johnson ’27, one of the event organizers and president of the Society of Physics Students. “It’s is a way of showing the joy you can get out of Physics and all the demos show the cool applications it can have and how important [physics] is.”
This year’s PhysicsFest saw Small Hall get transformed into an interactive arcade, blending classic arcade and video games with science and modern technology.
“We really wanted something that would incorporate the new School of Computing, Data Sciences & Physics, so we were tossing out a lot of tech-related ideas and arcade was just a good one,” said Johnson. “This is a way of introducing kids while they are young to the joys that physics and STEM have to offer.”
Johnson said some of the more popular activities this year included the “Mario Kart” hovercraft that reduces friction to enable kids to take rides in the building, the liquid nitrogen ice cream, and the “Super Smash Bros” station.
“We freeze a bunch of stuff with liquid nitrogen and then they get to hit it with hammers and watch it shatter like ice,” explained Johnson. “There's some really interesting physics behind it that everyone gets really into.”
The event also included self-guided tours of some of Small Hall’s research facilities, a Nobel-inspired lecture, and a student lightning talk competition.
While the name of the event is PhysicsFest, other STEM clubs from throughout William & Mary were encouraged to join in the fun.
“We typically invite as many of the other STEM clubs as we can, and we've been getting more involved throughout the years,” said Johnson. “Overall we just want it to be as big of an event as possible and then have exposure to different kinds of STEM.”
Celia Kerr ’26, president of the William & Mary Math Club, said their table featured a mix of probability games and puzzles, including a Pac-Man–themed spinning wheel that demonstrated probability concepts and a challenge where participants estimated the number of arcade tokens inside a jar.
“One of our members wrote a program where we could show everyone the average percent error so they can tell if their guess was good or bad,” said Kerr. “It's always fun when we reveal [the actual number] at the end of the day.”
Kerr has been part of PhysicsFest the past few years and said she appreciates it being open to other student groups.
“I'm always just very grateful of how welcoming everyone is and that they even had the idea to reach out to us in the first place to have a table. It was really great feeling like you are part of that community and having a great time with everyone involved.”
Kerr mentioned parents and alumni often ask students about their majors and what drew them to math and science, which gives her an opportunity to show why it may be a good path for their kids, which is reinforced through hands-on learning.
“It's really nice to see all of the kids get into the activities and be able to talk to students,” said Kerr. “It's definitely something I would have enjoyed as a kid, so it's cool to see them getting a little inspired in a way by all the stuff going on.”
For Johnson, the impact of PhysicsFest isn’t just aspirational.
“I personally have some friends at William & Mary from the Williamsburg area who came to PhysicsFest when they were kids when it was first starting out and they still remember that experience, so I think it really has a memorable and lasting effect on the kids who come.”
This article was created with the help of OpenAI's ChatGPT-5. All content was reviewed and edited by the communications team.