Volunteering for physics students

Welcome to Physics 13 August 2020

Many University of Manchester students give their time and energy to causes that help our local communities – even in lockdown.

Debbie Houghton from the University’s Volunteering Team said: “Times like this show just how important volunteers and communities coming together can be. Since the start of lockdown in the UK, over 1000 hours of remote volunteering have been completed and logged on Volunteer Hub. This has included everything from a telephone buddy scheme to support local elderly people, to adding details to community maps of the Acholi region of North Uganda. These additional hours mean that our students have completed over 50,000 hours of community-volunteering in 2019/20!”

Physics students share their volunteering experiences

UMPO, University of Manchester Physics Outreach, is a student-led group of volunteers who deliver physics workshops to primary and secondary schools and take demos they designed to public events and festivals like bluedot. The great work they do has been recognised in the Better World Awards and the Volunteer of the Year awards. The campus closure meant their busy spring and summer events calendar had to be cancelled, but they’ve moved online, starting the #physicsathome Twitter challenge and running a three-day ‘what is physics’? Facebook live event.

Alex and Mary, two members of their 2019/20 leadership team, told us (pre-COVID) what they get out of working with the group:

How to volunteer

Debbie had this to say about opportunities in the new academic year:

“If you’re looking to do some volunteering at the moment there’s a list of current roles on the Volunteering webpage, all of which undergraduates can use to count towards the Stellify Award. It can be a great way to add some routine into your day and make a difference in the community.

From September we’ll have a range of in-person and remote opportunities available on Volunteer Hub, so you can find something that suits you. And we hope that the usual academic-related opportunities will be back, although in a slightly different format to normal.

You can keep up to date with the latest volunteering news and opportunities on our Instagram page. And if you need any support, please get in touch volunteers@manchester.ac.uk.”

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