Friday Flyer/News
Submitted by kcecire
on Wednesday, September 13, 2017 - 12:53
Friday Flyer - September 12, 2014
Spotlight on the Idaho State University Center: Seven teachers attended the June Idaho State QuarkNet workshop guided by fellow Robert Franckowiak. They jointly calibrated 36 detector counters. That’s quite a stack of counters! First, they used the Cosmic Ray e-Lab plateauing instructions found in the Library: resources to find the PMT voltage sweet spot. Then, they adjusted the rates using the new EQUIP data interface (also found in the Cosmic Ray e-Lab: Library: Resources), and lastly, an upload to the Cosmic Ray e-Lab allowed a comparison of the time-over-threshold histogram using the performance studies. The tall stack confirmed everything and was fun. All of this was in preparation for developing cosmic ray studies that could be implemented when the teachers returned home. Five posters resulted focused on geometry and barometric pressure effects. Search the Cosmic Ray e-Lab posters during the workshop date window of June 16-20 to see the posters. With common detector calibration, the group hopes to coordinate flux studies after returning to their home schools; all separated by hundreds of miles and thousands of feet.
International Muon Day: Join your colleagues worldwide! QuarkNet is invited by DESY/Zeuthen to participate in an IPPOG-sponsored worldwide day of collecting cosmic ray data. The date is Wednesday, October 8. This annual event alternates with a similar QuarkNet effort in the spring. The fall event focuses on one-day collection; the spring event is weeklong data gathering. We hope to get many detectors on the air simultaneously. Data will be shared in the Cosmic Ray e-Lab (www.i2u2.org/elab/cosmic) and students will share their results. This fall’s topics will focus on cosmic showers and zenith angle. Find the announcement website and register: www.cern.ch/icd2014
Resources:
The Expanding Universe by Don Lincoln and Brian Nord publlished in The Physics Teacher (pdf file attached)
Five Reasons We Think Dark Matter Exists by Amanda Yoho at medium.com
QuarkNet Staff Teachers
Ken Cecire, kcecire@nd.edu
Tom Jordan, jordant@fnal.gov
Bob Peterson, rspete@fnal.gov
Friday Flyer - September 5, 2014
Spotlight on the Johns Hopkins Center:
The QuarkNet Center at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) had a very full summer 2014. They hosted a workshop for teachers and brought on summer research students. One of the teachers (Kevin Martz) attended a three-week teacher workshop at CERN and brought his excitement back to share with his colleagues at JHU.
Physics Experiment Roundup: The LHCb collaboration announced a result that hints of new physics.
http://news.discovery.com/space/another-glimpse-of-new-physics-at-the-lhc-140607.htm
Resources: 10 reasons why you can’t live without a particle accelerator
From the Nautilus website: http://nautil.us/issue/14/mutation/10-reasons-why-you-cant-live-without-a-particle-accelerator
Just for Fun: Win a trip to CERN: US LHC video contest
Stay tuned! As a way to advertise the restart of the LHC experiments, the US LHC collaboration plans to hold a video contest this fall: “What do you hope the LHC experiments will discover next?” The winner will be flown to CERN.
QuarkNet Staff Teachers
Ken Cecire, kcecire@nd.edu
Bob Peterson, rspete@fnal.gov
Tom Jordan, jordant@fnal.gov
Friday Flyer - August 29, 2014
Welcome back to the Friday Flyer!
Hope you had a good summer and good times with your QuarkNet colleagues.
Starting next week, we will have a new spotlight and a new location. This year we will focus on a center a week. It will take the whole year to get through all of them.
We invite you to send us an interesting story from your center. Meanwhile, the staff will also be cooking up ideas about what you have been doing. We have no particular order in mind, so as stories and ideas come forward, we will prepare the features.
Contact mbardeen@fnal.gov.
Now, about the location: You will find the Friday Flyer on the new website, quarknet.i2u2.org.
Look for the link on At Work under Forms and Documents.
We look forward to another great year with QuarkNet. Hope you keep checking the website for the next flyer. We’ll remind you!
Cheers,
Marge, Ken, Tom, Bob, Mitch, Anna, Dan