Increasing Plasma Science Interest among Underprivileged Students

For the past three years, PPPL has partnered with NASA to study dusty plasmas, convective flows, and other related topics in $\mu$-gravity. During the last year, we worked with a group of highly-motivated but underprivileged high school students to develop an experiment looking at the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in varying gravitational environments. The students were challenged to design, build and test the experiment to be flown aboard NASA's ``Weightless Wonder.'' Students met weekly with PPPL mentors over the course of the 9-month school year. The program provided students with long-term exposure to a scientific experiment, a sense of experimental ownership, and an opportunity to experience the scientific method outside of a classroom setting. Participants used inquiry-based learning techniques to design and build the experiment. We report on impact of the program and the outcome of the students' continued work.