Hawaii QuarkNet Annual Report 2018-2019

QuarkNet UH Manoa Annual Report, Sept. 2018 – Aug 2019

Event 1 - Cosmic Ray Workshop, Sept 29, 2018, Punahou School

QuarkNet Teacher Participants:

Tiffany Coke – Punahou School – facilitated use of school resources, rooms, WiFi network 
Johannes Adams – Punahou School – conducted muon detector tour
Peter Grach – Kamehameha Kapalama School – assisted with e-Lab data analysis
Duc Ong – Kaiser High School – led analysis of solar energetic particles data from AMS detector located      on the ISS.
Teacher Participants – Both expressed interest in obtaining muon detector for their schools.
Carey Inouye – Iolani School – substitute for Stephanie Lee, QuarkNet teacher
Patrick Yim – Leilehua High School
14 Students from Leilehua, McKinley and Kaiser High Schools, and Iolani School

Lectures:

AMS Data and Solar Energetic Particles – Christopher Light, UH Manoa graduate student
Particle Detectors Talk and Demonstration – Siqi Wang, UH Manoa graduate student
Applications of Detectors – Christopher Light
CERN Video – Dr. Veronica Bindi, UH Manoa

Hands-On Activities:

Solar Energetic Particles – Duc Ong – guided students on analyzing SEP data from AMS detector
Cosmic Ray Analysis e-Lab – Dr. Mike Jones, UH Manoa, Peter Grach  
The handout for making flux plots can be found at
 https://www.phys.hawaii.edu/~quarknet/fluxplotnotes.pdf
Students had to use the Queue study box to make flux plots to become familiar with e-Lab. They looked at saved plots for 1-15 Sept. 2017 data since it contained 4 X-class solar flares and two coronal
mass ejections.  They looked for any significant variations in flux that might be associated with the solar activity.  Of the 12 DAQs, 8 showed significant flux decreases of 2 to 4% early on 8 Sept. Two had such large errors that effects less than 10% would not have been visible, and two showed several variations that seem to be associated with variations in the singles rate on only one of four channels.  The students were able to see the decreases in individual DAQs and, more impressively, in the plots for combined DAQs. The decreases seem clearly related to the coronal mass ejection which arrived at Earth late on 7 Sept.  I ended by showing them some unexplained variations in the 7-8 Feb. data for DAQ 6432 which intrigued them.
 Grach shared e-Lab posters done by his students this year.  He encouraged the students to look at them for possible ideas for student projects.

Note – We have invited middle school students to participate at this annual workshop to introduce them to physics research and particle physics.  We collaborate with the UH Manoa STEM PreAcademy since they focus on middle school outreach.  The students listen to the same lectures.  However, hands-on activities designed for them are conducted while the high school physics students are doing more advanced activities. We hope to have these younger students inspired to take and learn more physics in high school.

 

Event 2 - QuarkNet Masterclass, March 16, 2019, Punahou School

Organized by QuarkNet teacher Tiffany Coke, this MasterClass had students participants as follows:  18 from Punahou School, 2 Leilehua High School and 2 Kaiser High School.  

Hands-On Activities:

 Rutherford Scattering – Dr. Claudio Corti, UH Manoa
 Quark Puzzle – Andrew Kuhlman, Christopher Freeman, UH Manoa graduate students
 Discovery of the Top Quark Mass – Tiffany Coke – QuarkNet teacher
Tour of the muon detector – Johanna Adams – QuarkNet teacher

Lectures:

 Dark Matter – Dr. Svin Vahsen, UH Manoa
 Cosmic Rays and Particle Physics at CERN – Dr. Matteo Palermo, UH Manoa
 Particle Physics Panel Discussion – Dr. Jason Kumar, UH Manoa, Dr. Palermo, Dr. Corti  

In the afternoon, student teams downloaded QuarkNet data, analyzed them, and discussed their results with the assistance of teachers and UH Manoa staff and graduate students. The major goal for students processing data for research is their development of an understanding of the physics behind their results. They had to prepare for the videoconference with students across the International Dateline.  Guided by FermiLab scientists, the students shared and discussed the similarities and differences in their results.  (The time difference is always a challenge for us in Hawaii, so our schedule is determined by the time that students living Singapore can meet with us).    

As always, the students rated the lunch hour very favorably.  Informally chatting with physicists and learning about them as people has been a highlight of MasterClass.  This inspires them to picture themselves as physicists!