Physics Club stretches boundaries, imaginations for members eager to learn

From Spanish Club to Critics Club to K-pop Club, West features student-led organizations for nearly every interest under the sun. All a student needs is some interested peers, a supervising teacher, and a classroom to turn their everyday W-hour study hall into something exciting. This motivated foreign exchange student and senior Koka Bitsadze to do something with one of his favorite subjects, physics.

“I saw some talented students who knew what they were doing and were interested in a club, and so I created Physics Club,” he said. “The purpose of it was to start learning different things than what is taught in class and maybe some things that are not related to anything in school but could be interesting or useful for college.”

Although the club is fairly new and has had only had one meeting, the group’s advisor, physics teacher Mr. Steve Oppman, has full faith in his students’ ideas. The first meeting proved a success, and Oppman looks forward to covering many topics inspired by student interest. 

“I have a couple of people in the club who are interested in astrophysics, and they might be more interested in things like the James Webb Telescope, and so we might talk about that,” he said. “Koka wants to look at some activities with gravitational pull and escape velocities, and how escape velocities would be different on different places such as the moon.”

As physics is heavily reliant on math, there are many ways that Bitsadze can explore the interests of both himself and his newfound club members, especially in the astrophysical world. In bringing these varying interests together, he is also bringing students together in a place they might have never met before. Senior Trinity Funnell is one of these students and has high hopes.

“Well, Koka kind of opened the floor to suggestions,” Funnell said. “Some wanted experiments and some wanted lectures, but I’m excited that we’ll be talking about physics in the astronomy field, so we’ll be covering black holes and topics like that. It’s something I’m really excited for!”

While Funnell is one of many members taking Oppman’s class, the question arose whether or not members needed it as a prerequisite for the club. Both Oppman and Bitsadze confirmed that the club is open to anyone interested in the science of physics and the wide breadth of topics that it covers. Whether students have taken it in the past, are currently enrolled, or are simply interested in learning more about the subject, Bitsadze encourages them to join.

“I’m planning on doing everything easily to explain everything as easy as possible. Students will need to have some background in math since the two subjects go hand-in-hand,” he said. “Students can still come and join us and possibly like it. I think it’s funny because in class we do a lot of graphing, and I personally don’t like graphing, so that was the one reason I started the club so we can do problems without graphing.”

Not only is Physics club a new way to learn and get excited about applied physics through activities, it also provides opportunities for the school to branch into different physics-related events outside of West. Oppman is excited for what the future holds. 

“I have a lot of possibilities too; there’s a physics video contest running right now that some people might be interested in,” he said. “The theme is presenting a physics topic and providing an explanation and there’s even prizes involved. I don’t know if anyone is doing it yet, but that’s one idea that might happen.”

Funnell is especially interested in this idea of applying physics in more ways, such as experiences in the class, which could benefit her in the long run when looking towards the future. 

“When I’m older, I want to be an astrophysicist, and so any way I can get physics in my life, I will take the opportunity,” she said. “I also joined it because we can cover complex subjects that probably won’t be covered in physics due to the larger number of students.”

As of now, Physics Club consists of the ideas of multiple students but will soon be refined into a promising student-led organization at West. Bitsadze is proud of his creation and is looking forward to what he can do as more members find their way to future meetings.

“I’m planning on doing a mixture-- like doing actual problem solving and using them to do hands-on work that are ideal to what would happen,” he said. “For now, we don’t have enough knowledge for these experiments that I’m thinking about and willing to do, but I’m definitely looking to the future so we can make our knowledge in physics deeper and take it to the next level.”

By Paige Helfrich

Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue V

February 22, 2022