Idaho State University QuarkNet Activities for 2015

Idaho State University QuarkNet Activities for 2015

The eleventh annual ISU QuarkNet Summer Institute was held June 8 - 12, 2015.  QuarkNet veterans Robert Franckowiak of Logan, Dr. Steven Millward of Grace, Idaho, Jodie Hale and Michael Matusek of Pocatello, Idaho, Keith Quigley of Roy Utah, and Carolyn Bennett of Dumas, Texas participated this year, along with QuarkNet newbies Geoffrey WIlliams of Pocatello, Idaho, and Enrique Arce-Larreta of Salt Lake City, UT.  During the institute, these Associate Teachers and Dr. Steve Shropshire plateaued each detector and did a preliminary blessing of each CRD.  Starting Tuesday Robert Fannkowiak lead discussions for ways to use the CRDs in the classroom and availability of web/online resources.  Newer attendees were paired with more seasoned members as each group brainstormed a research topic, then collected, uploaded, and viewed data. Troubleshooting some of the more frequent issues were also explored. 

Online collaboration was used to show the ease of programs such as Skype and Vidyo.  These programs allowed guest collaborators/speakers Ken Cecire, of Notre Dame, and later in the week a Q&A  with Rolf Landua and Konrad Jende, from CERN.  Other discussions referenced the online tools for the Masterclasses and CERN educational videos.   The Associate Teachers uploaded data for analysis, and posted 5 posters on the QuarkNet web site.  They also prepared lesson plans for their schools to use with the cosmic ray detectors. 

Two lectures were given during the workshop.  The topics were Current Research at the IAC, presented by Jon Stoner, and Current Research at CERN by Robert Franckowiak.

During the fall of 2014 and spring of 2015, all five of the Associate Teachers who participated in the 2014 Summer Institute had at least one detector for the whole academic year to introduce their students to particle physics, with Robert Frankowiak using two cosmic ray detectors. All eight Associate Teachers who participated in the 2015 Summer Institute will use one or two of the eight ISU detectors in this fashion in the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016.