2018 Annual Report
Student Summer Research and Teacher Workshop Annual Report
The Fermilab/University of Chicago QuarkNet Center sponsored its annual high school student summer research and teacher workshop for its 12th year. The summer research began June 11th and went until July 20th. The three-day teacher workshop was held from July 18th to July 20th. This year’s summer activities included two co-mentor scientists, one mentor teacher, four high school students, (three juniors and one sophomore), and 15 teachers of physics. Teachers from the workshop primarily were from the suburbs west of Chicago, all having taught physics or will be teaching physics this upcoming year. We continue to show variety in gender, age, and years of experience in the classroom.
As always, the summer research was very valuable for the students. The students worked in two pairs, each with their own mentor scientist. The students conducted research in the project areas of the Machine Learning applied in Astrophysics, and Slow Controls for a Cerenkov Detector at the Test Beams Facility. During the week, the students had the opportunity to attend lectures by research scientists as well as visit many of the experiments. We held weekly meetings during lunch to keep up with the logistics and share the progress on the scientific work. For the teacher workshop, the students prepared presentations on their experiences. All of this went very well and we are extremely proud of their progress and accomplishments.
The teacher workshop was also a great success. Teachers immersed themselves for three days at Fermilab experiencing a LIGO Master Class, conducted by Shane Wood. They looked at the research projects done by our QuarkNet students, worked with scientists from Fermilab, including Jim Annis, “Gravitational Waves and LGIO”, David Caratelli, “Neutrinos”, and Mattia Checchin, “Quantum Computing”. The group toured the Short Baseline Neutrino experiment, visiting the ICARUS and MicroBooNE detectors. In another tour, we entered the Fermilab Test Beam Facility and Lab 5 which houses the plastic scintillator extrusion line. The LIGO Master Class included a number of activities working towards the handling of data from research experiments. Teachers developed plans for implementing higher levels of data collection, interpretation, and explanation.
The Fermilab/University of Chicago QuarkNet Center continues to provide a quality research experience and educational workshop. Both teachers and students continue to express their satisfaction.
Lead Teacher: George Dzuricsko
Mentors: Angela Fava and Tom Carter