Adapting Methods of Physics Outreach to Unite the Community in times of Extreme Isolation

The COVID pandemic has altered how we conduct educational outreach in physics to the community. The adjustment from in-person events to virtual communication not only taught us how to adapt our methods of education in emergency situations, but also provided novel opportunities to engage students of all ages with an immersion of physics in an extraordinary time of isolation. We will report on how our team of primarily physics undergraduates have continued physics educational outreach over the last 12 months, primarily through Zoom. To  enhance participation from local K-12 communities, we have partnered with the Philadelphia STEM Collective as we delivered interactive content on topics such as acoustics (“Sounds of Science”) , and thermodynamics ("What's so Hot with Physics ?"). We also conducted physics outreach in partnership with a team of scientists and engineers from Puratos Corporation, to promote "physics in food".  In our physics demonstrations, we have engaged our online audiences using household items for hands-on experience and made activities interactive, even while online. We will discuss the challenges we faced with online outreach, and the lessons we learned that resulted in the successful, compelling engagement of our target audiences.