2020 Annual Report

QuarkNet

Fermilab/University of Chicago

Student Summer Research and Teacher Workshop

Annual Report 2020

The Fermilab/University of Chicago QuarkNet Center held its annual teacher workshop for its 14th year. High school student summer research was canceled this summer due to the quarantine. The three half-day teacher workshop was held from July 28 to July 30. Four individuals managed this year’s summer workshop and 20 teachers of physics attended. Teachers from the workshop were primarily from the Chicago metropolitan area, all incorporating physics in their teaching. We continue to show variety in gender, age, and years of experience in the classroom.

The teacher workshop was successful in meeting remotely. Teachers immersed themselves in QuarkNet data activities, experiencing a virtual muon workshop, conducted by Shane Woods. The Teaching with Data workshop included a number of activities working towards the handling of data from research experiments. Three activities were oriented around mean lifetime; we worked remotely through Dice, MINERvA, and Cosmic Muons exercises. Physicist Mark Adams worked through the data from QuarkNet cosmic ray muon detectors. Then we took on the newly developed Big Analysis of Muons (BAMC) at CMS measurement. We also took a brief look at the APS STEP UP resources. 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

FNAL EPO: Spencer Pasero