Virginia Tech QuarkNET Center Report 2018
Virginia Tech’s relatively new Quarknet Center continued to grow and evolve in 2018. We were sad to see the departure of Nick Merrill, one of our Lead Teachers, who left the the area to pursue other opportunities. However the resulting vacancy provided an opportunity for Rob Culbertson, who joined the center last year, to step up and join Rebecca Jaronski as a Lead Teacher of the Virginia Tech Center. Rob has close ties to Virginia Tech’s Center for Neutrino Physics (CNP); he is a Virginia Tech alumnus, and has spent the past two summers working with CNP faculty on projects related to their contributions to numerous high energy experiments across the globe.
The Center was also pleased to welcome its newest member, Joy Scales. Joy, a local physics teacher, along with veteran member James Winterer, traveled to Fermilab for DataCamp this year. They had a fabulous time touring lab facilities and collaborating with particle physicists and other high-energy teachers (pun?) to bring modern physics concepts into their classrooms. Like previous center members who have attended DataCamp, Joy expressed a renewed passion for extending her physics learning and pedagogy, and is excited to bring particle physics to her students this year!
In addition to sending teachers to DataCamp, VT Quarknet hosted another teacher workshop in the summer, planned and managed by Lead Teachers Rebecca Jaronski and Rob Culbertson, and attended by all the members of our center. The focus of this workshop was twofold: for content, the workshop was an introduction to accelerator engineering and science; it also provided ample work time for creating practical applications in the classroom. Daily activities were based on accelerator-inspired labs from Quarknet’s Data Portfolio. Additionally, the teachers benefitted from wonderful guest lecturers, an introduction to the Belle2 accelerator virtual reality program developed by Virginia Tech’s Dr. Leo Piilonen, and another visit to the Kimballton Underground Research Facility (KURF), where Dr. Tommy O’Donnell explained and demonstrated a sub-surface nuclear materials testing experiment he is conducting in the mine.
This year’s workshop included an intentional focus on the “development” component of professional development. Teachers were allowed time each day to work on complete, customized, and ready to implement lesson plans based on workshop activities and other Data Portfolio activities that they were able to explore on their own. The workshop’s culminating activity was a sharing session, during which each teacher presented the lesson plan they prepared during the week. The presentations included an explanation of why each teacher chose their activity, as well as how and why it was adapted to meet the needs of their own students. The workshop teachers were very happy to have this much time for independent work, as a common criticism of teacher professional development is that, without ample time to reflect on and hone newly acquired knowledge and techniques, the benefits of a workshop rarely actually make it to the classroom!
It was another successful year for Virginia Tech’s center, and we look forward to continued growth and learning!