Terms like quantum physics, kinetic energy, thermal dynamics and electro-magnetistim may be but a faint memory from that barely passed high-school science class, but the persona and excitement of one University faculty member makes physics unforgettable.
If you’ve taken an undergraduate physics course, chances are you’ve seen his work. A lover of the physical sciences, particularly the dynamics of light, physics department Senior Instructor Stan Micklavzina estimates he arranges for about a thousand Bill-Nye-the-Science-Guy-like demonstrations per year for undergraduate physics classes at the University.
Micklavzina graduated from the University with a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1983, and in 1985 received his master’s degree. Working full-time in the Demonstration Room since 1985, Micklavzina provides support for lecture demonstrations and works closely with professors of undergraduate physics classes.
His work doesn’t always end when he leaves his office in Willamette Hall, however. In addition to his campus duties, Micklavzina regularly takes his love for physics to local elementary schools.
“I’ve been going out to schools since I started doing this job,” he said. “Most the time when I go out, it’s to a particular classroom, or an assembly of first and second graders.”
But the demonstrations aren’t purely for their entertainment value, he said.
“I usually like to have the teachers tell me what they’re covering,” he said. “I’d rather build on something they’re trying to teach…sound, lights, electricity and magnetism … I like to keep it to what the students are looking at.”
The opportunity to awe, spark interest in science and actively interact with eager and interested youngsters provides Micklavzina with gratification he doesn’t always receive from undergraduate physics classes.
“I want to keep everybody engaged,” Micklavzina said. “I try to get the students to do that in the physics classes — the [younger] kids are very cooperative — when you lecture here, you try to get students excited and to ask more questions, but most students want to say ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, I just want to get out of here — I want to go eat lunch.’” He said without the lecture-demonstrations fewer students would be inclined to take courses in the sciences.

On Sunday, the long-time University instructor performed “Dr. Stan’s Science Circus” at the WOW Hall, a Eugene community arts performance center.
The event attracted nearly 175 guests and raised almost $650 to benefit certain jeopardized programs at River Road Elementary School, where Micklavzina’s seven-year-old daughter is a student.
“[The money] goes into a general parent funding committee,” he said “We had a particular mission last year; we were trying to keep music, P.E. and our library services open in the school.”
At Sunday’s performance, Micklavzina provided the audience with a well-rounded lesson in physics.
One demonstration charged the sodium contained in a pickle, resulting in a lighted pickle — and awful smell. A demonstration in static-electricity caused a little girl’s hair to stand on end — literally. Matches carefully placed in a microwave, something Micklavzina warns against trying at home, displayed the physics of an awesome fireworks-like effect.
Sunday’s performance provided only a glimpse into what the Demonstration Room has to offer.
Some apparatus in the room date back to the early 1900s, when the physics department was housed in Deady Hall, the oldest building on campus.
“The ‘patent pending’ on that electro-static machine there reads 1904,” Micklavzina said while looking at a machine perched high upon a shelf.
Various gizmos fill shelf after shelf in this room of endless surprises.
“Along with the shelves, there’s all the stuff that’s in the drawers,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff in here.”
Micklavzina recalls a number of years after the passing of the former Demonstration Room head, when the room was run by undergraduate and graduate students, with an occasional faculty member popping in.
“During those years, the room was basically beginning to fall apart,” he said.

Until 1995, he directed both the Demonstration Room and the undergraduate labs, but felt the effort he was able to put into each duty was not up to par.
Micklavzina became really involved with the Demonstration Room in 1995 when he became Director of Instructional Support.
“I decided to stop going for my Ph.D. and take the position,” Micklavzina said. “Whether or not that was the best decision, I don’t know — I’m happy though.”
Currently, three undergraduates and one graduate student assist Micklavzina in the demonstration room; they also assisted Micklavzina with his WOW Hall performance.
Micklavzina said that the demo room experience sometimes leads to students becoming involved in research labs on campus.
For the assistants, the experience provides an escape.
“Instead of always dealing with the thick mathematical process of physics, I go to the demo room and play with toys; it’s fun,” physics major Travis Shaw said.
River Road Elementary School held a kick-off event Thursday in anticipation of Sunday’s event, bringing River Road and Whiteaker students together for the first time.
River Road Elementary School Principal Sara Cramer said the feedback she has received from Whiteaker parents following the assembly has been positive. She said she has heard about several Whiteaker students disappointed in the closure of their school, but thanks to Micklavzina’s assembly, now look forward to attending the River Road Elementary.
“It’s a really great thing he’s doing for the school,” Cramer said. “We’re really glad to have him as an involved parent.”