Friday Flyer - January 12, 2018
Spotlight on the University of Notre Dame QuarkNet Center
The University of Notre Dame focuses its QuarkNet work on an exensive summer research program. Each year about 15 teachers and 15 students engage in a variety of projects from the CMS upgrade to cosmic rays. Indiana University South Bend collaborates by taking on Notre Dame teachers to assist in their dark matter experiment. Notre Dame is also very involved in International Masterclasses, hosting several per year, and in ongoing work with the community. QuarkNet meets weekly during the school year, and teachers actively participate in outreach through community events.
News from QuarkNet Central
International Masterclasses and orientations are nearly upon us. If your group is not yet signed up, contact Ken. It is important to do this soon. The International Masterclasses circulars now come every week; read the latest.
Applications for U.S. participants in the 2018 CERN High School Teachers program are still open! Applications and recommendations are due Sunday, January 21, 2018. You may read more about the HST program here, but note that U.S. teachers are not to use the CERN application.
QuarkNet Nuts and Bolts
Need to learn the latest about masterclasses and e-Labs—or just find out more? Practically the only URL you need is https://quarknet.org. Use the menu at the top to navigate to MASTERCLASSES > LHC PROJECT MAP or E-LABS and thence to the e-Lab of your choice. Looking for something else? Use the search box at the bottom of the page.
Physics Experiment Roundup
Let's go big to small this week. Going astro-big, the Dark Energy Survey has released its data and gravitational waves may show up in observing stars. Also from DES, symmetry reports observations of stellar "rivers." At Fermilab, there have been interesting forward-backward asymmetry results from the Tevatron. Down to earth: A report in Nature shows how small-scale particle physics can lead to big results. And Medford High School has put up some nice barometric pressure and cosmic ray flux data from the early-January snowstorm in the northeast.
Resources
Spend a minute with Stepanie Timpone, Fermilab engineering physicist. Demonstrate gravitational lensing with a wine glass (hat tip to the Virtual Center). Learn more from this video by Don Lincoln.
Just for Fun
At Fermilab, the g-2 experiment gets art and color.
QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Deborah Roudebush: droudebush@cox.net
Jeremy Smith: jsmith10@bcps.org
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu