University of Notre Dame QuarkNet Center Annual Report 2019

Report:

The University of Notre Dame QuarkNet Center has the following areas of activity in 2019:
Weekly teacher meetings during the academic year

  • Special events
  • Summer research, including “QuarkNet Week”.

Teachers met most Mondays in the 2018-2019 school year. Much of the time on a given Monday was spent talking about physics or teaching; the rest was devoted to planning activities to come. Not every teacher came every week but there were usually 5-10 teachers present. Jeremy Wegner often connected on Zoom from his school in Winamac, about a 90 minute drive away.

There were several special events. Notre Dame QuarkNet teachers again provided particle physics outreach by creating and running exhibits at ETHOS Science Spooktacular in Elkhart in October 2018, Science Alive in St. Joseph County Public Library in February 2019, and Notre Dame STEM Day in May 2019. In addition, Notre Dame teachers from Winamac Community High School, Marian High School, and St. Joseph High School and their students participated in an ATLAS Masterclass in March, connecting by Vidyo with students in Illinois and Argentina and videoconference moderators at Fermilab. Several Notre Dame QuarkNet teachers participated in the Indiana AAPT meeting in April, held nearby at Indiana University South Bend; teachers Dan Walsh and Jeremy Wegner made presentations.

Teacher Rebekah Randall participated in an expedition to Chile in August made possible by Notre Dame International. Ms. Randall, along with QuarkNet staff teachers Ken Cecire and Shane Wood, took cosmic ray data at varying altitudes and latitudes and they facilitated three students workshops along with a teacher workshop.

The Notre Dame QuarkNet teachers not only participated in a strong summer RET program but also selected an equal number of rising high school seniors to join them in this research. They formed groups to do research on CMS Upgrade, CMS Data, Cosmic Ray Studies, Project GRAND, Digital Visualization Theatre, Astronomy, BioComplexity, Magnetometry, Dark Matter and Rocketry. Some noteworthy efforts include the construction of a “Cosmic Watch” small cosmic ray detector to study how SiPMs might be used in future QuarkNet cosmic ray detectors, learning and use of PYTHON to analyze CMS data, and building rockets for the first time.

QuarkNet Week came at the end of the summer research session (teachers only); teachers continued their research, explored QuarkNet offerings, or did both.

A final note: at the end of summer 2019, the Notre Dame QuarkNet Cetner physical plant moved out of its building south of campus (scheduled for demolition) and into the Reyniers building just north of campus, close to Project Grand. Staff, teachers, and movers all took part.

 

Images:

   

Marian High School students visit the Notre Dame accelerator to prepare for International Masterclasses.

 

Summer students Sophie Gold, Elliot Sakimoto, Josh Wasierski work on rocket contruction.

 

Rebekah Randall assists high school students with ATLAS data analysis in La Serena, Chile.