Friday Flyer - March 12, 2021
A reminder that the Friday Flyer now comes out every other week. Look for the next flyer on March 26.
Spotlight on the QuarkNet Educational Discussions
"There aren't many places you can go where complaining about the weather leads to a talk from a person working on a project at NASA," says Jeremy Wegner, speaking of QuarkNet Educational Discussions (QED).
QED was started last August to give QuarkNet teachers a Zoom venue to talk together about how to cope with teaching in a pandemic. It has since become more than that with guests making presentations or leading discussions. Most recently, Mark Adams joined QED to talk about cosmic ray projects and International Muon Week (which, by the way, is just wapping up today), and a Tufts Institute of Cosmology theorist gave a talk on cosmic strings. And yes, we are contemplating inviting a physicist to explain a NASA mission to Titan.
The most interesting part, though, is how these seeds germinate ideas. Maria Niland explains, "We can figure out ways to make connections . . . for the students," and Shane Wood speaks of "topics that range from how to teach in a pandemic to very specific, in-depth conversations about astrophysics or particle physics."
Just yesterday, Ken chatted with Nicole Preiser, who has been in QED from the beginning and has been a great driver of discussion and action. We made a podcast! Take a look just below.
News from QuarkNet Central
Thank you very much! Some 33 centers submitted the RFP response form for the 2021 RFP. Some centers still need to do this, and we are taking post-deadline submissions. If you do not have all the information yet, please send what you have, estimates, and wild guesses.
As noted above, International Muon Week (IMW) is just about over. Next week, March 15–19, participants can discuss results and ask questions via Zoom. If you have questions, contact Mark.
Masterclass season wraps up tomorrow for Fermilab; save one videocon way out in April. It continues at CERN until March 27. TRIUMF has one date on April 24. Check out the latest IMC circulars: from last Friday and today's edition.
QuarkNet Educational Discussions (QED) continue to meet as we head into spring. Read about it above. Next meeting: March 24.
Beamline for Schools 2021 is on! Get basic information and a registration link in the announcement, and find more resources at the Useful Documents page.
INSPYRE (INternational School on modern PhYsics and REsearch) will host a series of lectures online on April 12–16, 2021. Registration is now open. The European School Innovation Academy has a whole menu of summer science workshops and training courses. There is no fee, but you do have to get and keep yourself there on your own. And Perimeter Institute is offering new workshops, a teacher camp, and more.
QuarkNet lost two friends since the last edition of FF. Last week, Salvador Carrillo, a CMS physicist and leader at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico, passed away suddenly. Salvador was responsible for building up International Masterclasses in Mexico and this year was active supporting institutes across his country and moderating Fermilab videoconferences. This week, our Ole Miss center lost Don Summers, who often helped facilitate workshops and drive discussions of particle physics. Both gentlemen will be missed.
Physics Experiment Roundup
We start with a small parade of experiments in Fermilab News. PIP-II is the latest R&D accelerator project at Fermilab where testing of a new cryomodule just finished. There is also news of the DUNE near detector and of the SpinQuest experiment to study the contribution of sea quarks to proton spin. Switching to CERN, we meet the new AMBER project for more proton study in CERN Bulletin. Same source: the PS is back.
We finish with an ancient experiment in which you and your students can collaborate with peers worldwide. Measure the earth just like Eratosthenes did!
Resources
Fermilab leads the way again with two videos: Antimatter and other deep mysteries by Dr. Gerald Gabrielse and Why do bananas emit neutrinos? in the Even Bananas series. Of course, a lab is only as good as its people. We can learn more in these Fermilab News articles: A brief history of women of Fermilab, perfect for this Women's History Month, and Fermilab Student and Postdoc Association talks with Bryan Ramson. Need more Fermilab? Check out Fermilab Frontiers for this month.
Just for Fun
Some fun is more than fun. Major hat tip to Marge Bardeen, who referred us to animations of the sizes of astronomical objects and the comet-like lunar tail (via the New York Times). Yes, fun. Yes, cool physics too.
Another big tip of the hat goes to physics teacher Cédric Vanden Driessche and his students at Collège Lycée Expérimental in Herouville-St. Clair, France, for three fun-with-physics student videos about World Wide Data Day. They call them W2D2-1, W2D2-2, and W2D2-3.
Let's go back to CERN Bulletin for Humour in the Time of Corona. More scholarly than funny, the piece highlights deflection (their idea, not ours), self-mockery, which we cannot even spell, and sarcasm, because we really care. (Sorry . . . we could not resist.)
QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu