Informal Education is Essential to Physics: Findings of the 2024 JNIPER Summit and Call to Participate

Informal physics education (IPE) refers to physics education activities outside of formal school activities (e.g., afterschool programs, museums, summer camps, media, etc.) and includes the act of scientists engaging with the public around physics topics. IPE activities are essential to the discipline of physics and have many benefits for participants, practitioners, and institutions alike. The Joint Network for Informal Physics Education and Research (JNIPER) is a community of practice for people who facilitate, design, or study IPE and public engagement activities or programs. In June 2024, JNIPER hosted a national Summit that convened ~40 IPE practitioners and researchers from a variety of physics institutions to strategize around the goal of affecting culture change within the physics discipline to more clearly recognize and value IPE as an essential disciplinary activity. In this presentation, we will present a summary of the Summit discussions and share the resulting recommendations for achieving the desired culture change, recognizing IPE as an essential physics practice. We discuss three levers with which to promote culture change: (a) structures, (b) engagement of interested, influential, and/or impacted parties, and (c) adoption of research-based practices. For each lever, we present recommendations for individuals, departments, institutions, organizations, societies, and/or funding agencies. We will also discuss next steps for JNIPER and how interested individuals can get involved.