Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Annual Report 2017 July 13, 2017

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Annual Report 2017 

July 13, 2017

Mentor: Tony Spadafora

Workshop Coordinator: Laurie Kerrigan

Co- Organizer: Ken Cecire (QuarkNet)

The LBNL Physics Division hosted its eleventh “Physics in and Through Cosmology” workshop for QuarkNet Leadership teachers and high school students. The five-day workshop from June 26 to June 30, 2017 was held at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.  Twelve science teachers participated. Six of the teachers have been active members of QuarkNet for five or more years. Two new teachers joined the group this year and two from previous years returned.  There were 34 students with approximately equal number of boys and girls. The teachers & students represented public and private high schools in the greaterSan Francisco Bay Area.

The first day focused on getting all participants familiar with concepts & terms in particle physics & cosmology.  This was accomplished through “mini” lectures given by returning QuarkNet teachers. This day also included a discussion by Spencer Klien, an LBNL researcher, entitled “Natural radiation, from cosmic-rays to neutrinos?”  The LBNL 88” cyclotron was also toured.

The other days consisted of hands-on warm-up activities,  morning  & afternoon scientist talks..  Between talks, groups worked on hands-on experiments (e.g. QuarkNet activities lead by Ken Cecire using data from ATLAS).   Groups consisted of four students and a teacher.  Groups also discussed the lectures and  designed & carried out experiments with Cosmic Ray Detectors.  .  There was a virtual tour of the ATLAS Control Room at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.  There were also tours of the ALS (Advanced Light Source) and Molecular Foundry research facilities at LBNL.  

Teachers meet with Ken Cecire over dinner the first night for Master Class training, and over lunch on the second day to discuss QuarkNet.   On the last day we had a Panel Discussion with the following presenters: Darcy Barron, Heather Gray, Spencer Klein & Vetri Velan.