About Us

Who We Are

QuarkNet is dedicated to developing and broadening participation in America’s STEM workforce by engaging high school teachers and students in current particle physics research. QuarkNet is a partnership between Fermilab, the University of Notre Dame, and 50 research centers across the United States.

  • We are teachers, gaining experience in physics research while developing our talents and classroom effectiveness within a network of peers with whom we grow as professionals.

  • We are professional physics researchers, extending our educational impact and engaging with our local communities.

  • We are experimental collaborations, sharing our experience and our data with teachers and students.

  • We are the QuarkNet staff, a team of dedicated education professionals facilitating these interactions and creating new opportunities for our participants.

What We Do

Through our nationwide network of QuarkNet Centers, we unite science teachers and university and laboratory investigators in active research projects of contemporary physics.

  • Through our Data Activities Portfolio, teachers access particle physics classroom instructional materials consistent with NGSS Standards and freely available to all.

  • Through International Masterclasses, teachers and students around the world experience being “particle physicists for a day.”

  • Through our e-Labs, teachers guide students through in-depth inquiries using authentic data.

Three men sit at a desk and consider what's presented on a laptop computer while one of them gestures toward it
A group of men and women in hardhats pose, smiling, by a blue railing separating them from a large, complex particle detector at a high-energy accelerator laboratory

What We Do

  • In Data Camp at Fermilab, teachers learn about particle physics from the ground up.

  • In Coding Camps, teachers develop and apply python programming to science education.

  • At local, national, and international conferences and in publications, teachers and staff disseminate the work of the QuarkNet collaboration.

Teachers @ Syracuse center work on QuarkNet Workbench
Students at UIC Cosmic Ray Workshop

What We Can Do For You

In QuarkNet, 

  • Teachers develop professionally and gain experience in scientific research.

  • Researchers engage with teachers and students.

  • Students immerse in meaningful science and share in the excitement of physics at the cutting edge.

QuarkNet affords teachers opportunities to participate in:

  • Professional development camps at major scientific facilities such as Fermilab and CERN.

  • Developing and facilitating specialized workshops for colleagues and students as QuarkNet fellows.

  • Assisting physicists in all aspects of maintaining QuarkNet centers as lead teachers.

  • Meetings and national workshops facilitated by staff, fellows, lead teachers, and mentors at QuarkNet centers across the country.

  • Local, national, and international learning communities with their peers.

Publications and presentations by QuarkNet teachers, students, and staff

Teachers @ QuarkNet Boot Camp Poster Session in Fermilab Atrium
Teachers @ UCRiverside center build histogram
High view of a large white chamber, five stories tall with railed gangways along the far wall, containing the large cubic structure with latticed surface and attached scientific equipment that forms the Far Detector of the NOvA Experiment