Earlier this summer, 18 high school and junior high school teachers became students once again in order to learn about particle physics. The QuarkNet workshop took place at SLAC and Stanford from June 19 to July 3, hosting teachers mostly from the Bay Area, but also from as far away as Washington State.

Four high school physics and chemistry teachers (Gene Csider, Ken Newberry, Earl Roske and Molly Uhl) had spent the summer last year at SLAC assisting in various laboratory groups. These four lead teachers, along with SLAC physicists, planned and implemented the 11-day workshop held this summer. SLAC personnel involved in QuarkNet include Helen Quinn (THP), Pat Burchat (BABAR), Tom Glanzman (EC), Harvey Lynch (BABAR), Abi Soffer (BABAR), and Willy Langeveld (SCS).

Similar programs have taken place at physics research centers across the country over the past five years, in an effort to expose teachers and students to cutting edge research and to establish connections between educators and research scientists. The QuarkNet program is based out of Fermilab (http://quarknet.fnal.gov/), and funded by the National Science Foundation and the DOE.

QuarkNet participants. Standing: Ken Newberry (Foothill HS, Pleasanton), Douglas Spalding (Royal Sunset HS, Hayward), Peter Herreshoff (Gunn HS, Palo Alto), Keith Geller (Palo Alto HS, Palo Alto), James Marshall (A. Castillero MS, San Jose), Helen Quinn (TH), Julie Hubbard (Liberty HS, Brentwood), Dylan Rich (Palo Alto Prep School, Palo Alto), David Lau (Mission San Jose HS, Fremont), Tom Woosnam (Crystal Springs, Hillsborough), Earl Roske (Leland HS, San Jose), I-Heng (Monta Vista HS, Cupertino), Travis Hambleton (Monta Vista HS, Cupertino), Lisa Breton (California HS, San Ramon), Lynda Nicholson (Charter School of Morgan Hill), John Currie (Mt. Tahoma HS, Tacoma, WA), Rafale Navarro (Morse HS, San Diego), Harvey Lynch (BABAR), Willy Langeveld (SCS), Thomas Glanzman (EC), Molly Uhl (Notre Dame HS, San Jose). Seated: Abi Soffer (BABAR), Brian Martin (Thurgood Marshall Academic HS, San Francisco), Dave Trapp (Sequim HS, Sequim, WA), Gene Csider (San Ramon Valley HS, Danville), Jennifer Docktor (SULI student), Manuel Reyes (SULI student) (Photo by Diana Rogers)

A Full Schedule

The visiting teachers started with a two-day crash course on the Standard Model on the Stanford campus, presented by Burchat. They also took tours of current particle physics and astrophysics experiments, including Gravity Probe B and the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search.

During the next two weeks, teachers were hosted by SLAC, where they heard talks about everything from the BABAR detector to neutrino oscillations. They were also given tours of many of the experimental facilities on site.

The teachers spent five afternoons getting their hands dirty–constructing cosmic ray detectors for classroom use. Here they learned the secrets of sanding and polishing scintillator plastic, checking and calibrating photomultiplier tube bases, constructing stands, and assembling and testing entire counters.

QuarkNet participants construct cosmic ray detectors for classroom use. (Photo by Dave Trapp)

There is still a bit of ongoing work to tune these systems. In addition, SULI summer students Jennifer Dockter and Manuel Reyes are working on some Java software to control the equipment and provide histograms of the results. By early October we expect to have a set of working systems that SLAC can loan out to local schools for in-class demonstrations.

The ultimate goal of QuarkNet is for teachers to take back some of the content and methods of current physics research to the students they teach. The cosmic ray detectors are just one of the ways that these teachers will bring their experiences from this summer back to their students in the coming school year.

During the course of the workshop, teachers tried out various activities to incorporate particle physics into their current curriculum. They calculated the mass of the top quark based on data from Fermilab using conservation of momentum. They modeled the increasing distances between stars in an illustration of the expansion of the universe. They also discussed possible ways to expose their students not only to the subject of particle physics itself, but also to the realities of how science is done.

QuarkNet did not end on July 3. Post-workshop meetings are scheduled for early October, and QuarkNet teachers will continue to meet, design new activities and share strategies for teaching science and incorporating particle physics. They will continue to receive help and resources from SLAC physicists through the contacts they made this summer.