Friday Flyer - November 8, 2019
Spotlight on the University of Kansas QuarkNet Center
Phil Baringer worked with Jim Deane to organize a three-day workshop in June on computing in the physics classroom. During the workshop, teachers worked with GlowScript, Jupyter notebooks, and Anaconda; all computational tools used to teach physics concepts. KU astronomer Jennifer Delgado presented on the use of spreadsheets, and Brian Schafer from Washburn University discussed computing in high school research done at Lawrence (KS) High School. Phil rounded out the workshop with three talks: one establishing the motivation for using computing tools in the classroom, one introducing teachers to resources on the PICUP website, and one on the role of computing in undergraduate research.
News from QuarkNet Central
Masterclass season will be here before you know it! Center leaders, now is a great time to check for dates that work for your teachers and their students. We use Doodle polls to register and each time slot is limited to five institutes. These polls are open until November 29; after that, you must register by e-mail. Go to the CMS Doodle, the ATLAS Doodle, or the MINERvA Doodle for Fermilab videoconferences. There are videoconferences hosted at CERN, GSI (Germany), and KEK (Japan) as well. See the latest International Masterclasses Circular.
If you're planning to attend the January AAPT Winter Meeting in Orlando, take advantage of the early bird registration, which ends on November 11.
Beamline for Schools (BL4S) proposals are due March 31, 2020; learn more at the BL4S website.
Physics Experiment Roundup
Fermilab's NOvA neutrino experiment recently released new results based on data that were recorded between 2014 and 2019. Though these results are not able to draw conclusions about CP violation in neutrino interactions, they do help physicists better understand the ordering of neutrino mass states.
All detector components need to do it: pass the beam test to see if they work as expected. Learn more about this process, and where such tests take place, in this article from symmetry. See the engineering design cycle at work as researchers take on the challenges of developing a suitable production target for the Mu2e experiment.
Resources
Seventeen-year-old Jeffery Chen from Burlingame, California, wins the Breakthrough Junior Challenge with his short video on neutrino astronomy. Chen will receive a $250,000 scholarship, while his science teacher will receive $50,000, and his high school $100,000 toward a new science lab.
Do photons cast shadows? Find out from this recent short video from Minute Physics. And from Scientific American, read about the Voyager 2's clean break from the solar system into interstellar space.
Just for Fun
This delicate passenger was recently spotted on a couple of United flights from San Francisco to Geneva. Turns out her name is Alice—though she prefers to go by ALICE. Click here to learn more about this piece of equipment, including her travels!
QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu