UA Annual Report 2023

This is UA’s first year in the QuarkNet program. Our primary goals are to focus on coding and data science (AI/ML) education for high school teachers. We organized the first workshop from Jun 3 - 5, 2023 focused on coding for the classroom. The workshop was organized by Prof. Sergei Gleyzer and QuarkNet Coding Fellows Joy Brennan and Megan Alford. The workshop included three local Tuscaloosa area teachers (all female) from a variety of backgrounds. The workshop sessions led by Joy Brennan, Megan Alford and Sergei Gleyzer included coding and data science activities (pair-programming, driver-navigator) and data analysis with CMS Open Data and preparation of implementation plans and lesson activities by the teachers to take back to their classroom. There were also introduction talks to particle physics, CMS by UA faculty and graduate students (Ana Maria Slivar and Eric Reinhardt) and QuarkNet (Ken Cecire) and lab visits (Thejesh Bandi). Ken Cecire came to visit the workshop and took part in the last day’s activities with the teachers. Based on the participant feedback, the workshop was very successful. Some of the teachers were also interested to participate in other QuarkNet activities over the summer (Fermilab Data Camp) and we plan to follow-up with the teachers in the spring about their implementations. There have been additional follow-up based on the word-of-the-mouth among other local teachers and we expect significantly more participants next year. Also, next summer, we are planning a research experience activities for several candidate lead teachers at UA related to testing and characterization of CMS HGCAL hexaboards.