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Students moved from room to room inside Gardiner Hall, stopping to test experiments, ask questions, and watch demonstrations during New Mexico State University’s Physics Fun Day.
Held Friday, March 27, the event turned abstract concepts into something tangible. Visitors moved between stations featuring liquid nitrogen ice cream, magnetic levitation and virtual reality tours through space, each designed to show how physics plays out in the real world.
Organized by the university’s Physics Graduate Student Organization, the annual event drew middle school, high school and college students from across the region, many attending as part of school trips. For organizers, the goal went beyond demonstrations.
“Anyone can do physics or anyone can do science in general,” said Hariprashad Ravikumar, a graduate student and one of the event’s coordinators. “This is cool and I think I can even pursue a career in it.”
That idea carried through the students leading the experiments, many of whom traced their own interest in science back to moments of curiosity. Prakash Timsima, a Ph.D. student in physics, recalled a classroom demonstration that first caught his attention — a simple experiment showing how electricity could be generated using a magnet.
Moments like that, he said, can leave a lasting impression. For others, the path into physics came from embracing difficulty.
“It’s not as scary as you think,” said Kordero Talachy, an undergraduate physics student. “It’ll be challenging, but if you give it 100%, there’s no way you can’t do it.”
That message resonated throughout the event, where students not only watched experiments but participated in them. For Suhdan Koirala, a first-year Ph.D. student, curiosity remains the driving force of it all.
“If you have questions like how, why, and what, physics will give you the answer,” Koirala said.
Beyond the demonstrations, the event served as a point of connection between the university and the Las Cruces community, offering an environment where learning felt interactive rather than instructional. For many who attended, it began with one single moment. The kind that turns curiosity into something worth chasing.
