Friday Flyer - September 30, 2022
Spotlight on the Florida International University QuarkNet Center
What's one way to tell that teachers are deeply engaged in conversation about particle physics? One answer: FIU mentor Jorge Rodriguez is nearly an hour into a talk about the Standard Model, and is only on slide two. That's exactly what happened during the FIU workshop in July, as teachers at this center had their first face-to-face QuarkNet meeting since the pandemic. This year's workshop centered around MINERvA data, and included time for teachers to work through several activities from the Data Activities Portfolio and time to discuss classroom implementation. Participating teachers this year had a wide range of prior QuarkNet experience: One was brand new to QuarkNet, while others have been involved since the early days of the program. The picture below was taken well after the scheduled end-time for the workshop--indicative of the strong community bonds that exist between so many QuarkNet teachers!
News from QuarkNet Central
Present at the AAPT 2023 Winter Meeting. The deadline to submit a presentation for the AAPT WM23 to be held in Portland, OR this coming January has been extended until this coming Sunday, October 2. Click here for a link to the page where you can sign up.
QuarkNet Educational Discussions. Teachers met via Zoom for the first QED meeting of the school year this past Wednesday. QED has been reorganized a bit, with participating teachers taking more of a lead in organizing and facilitating these discussions. The next session will take place on Wednesday, October 12 at 7pm CT, and will feature a Share-A-Thon; time for teachers to share great ideas with each other. Want to learn more? Sign up! Check the webpage!
World Wide Data Day. Registration is now open for this year's W2D2, which will take place on Thursday, November 10. W2D2 is a chance to have a simplified masterclass experience in your school using authentic ATLAS or CMS data! Students can share results with their peers and with physicists from all over the world. To learn more, check out the W2D2 pages. Have questions? Contact Ken or Shane.
International Cosmic Day. Registration is now open for this year's ICD, which will be held on Tuesday, November 22. Spend a day with cosmic rays and collaborate internationally! Learn more at the ICD website.
Physics Experiment Roundup
The Snowmass Process provides a way for particle physicists to collectively plan the future of particle physics research in the US for the next decade or so. The 2022 Snowmass meeting took place in July at the University of Washington in Seattle. Get a sense of what US particle physicists are collectively envisioning as they look toward the future in this Physics Today article. Snowmass reaffirmed support for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a major neutrino experiment with a near detector at Fermilab, where the neutrino beam will originate, and a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Read more about DUNE in "Building a Ship in a Bottle for Neutrino Research."
Symmetry reports on "Catching Neutrinos at the LHC."
From Physics: "Satellite Confirms the Principle of Falling" and a cartoon that describes results from the MICROSCOPE satellite experiment. From Quanta Magazine: "High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last."
Many of you are familiar with the Beamline for Schools competition. This year's winners recently arrived at CERN and DESY to start their experiments.
Resources
Many of you will recognize the location that appears on the front cover of the October, 2022 issue of The Physics Teacher. Inside this issue, you'll find an article by Don Lincoln: "Is Physics in Crisis? The Mystery of the W Boson." There are several additional free articles in this month's issue as well, including one about magnetic poles, one on students reading primary sources to learn about quantum physics, and this one highlighting the use of dynamic energy transfer models.
From Live Science, an article on the basics of the Standard Model.
Tomorrow is the first day of October. That means Dark Matter Day is just around the corner. Plan ahead and find a Dark Matter Day event!
Just for Fun
We'll start out with an aviation theme, including the Pilot Priority List and How a Wing Produces Lift (well, kind-of!), both from our friends at xkcd. Check out this video of aircraft landing and taking off in strong crosswinds. (Who knows...maybe this video could provide phenomena for your class to study!)
More from the category of "looking up." Here are a couple of Fermi Questions based on everyone's favorite cloud (well, maybe?), altocumulus undulatus. (Don't worry, The Physics Teacher also provides an answer key.) Up for another challenge? Check out Ups and More Ups.
Lastly, here's a video from Veritasium on the world's highest jumping robot.
Happy weekend!
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu