Cosmic Watch Lab Suite

This Cosmic Watch Suite of data activities describes experiments that can be done either at the singles or two-fold rate.
The Cosmic Watch (CW) is a small cosmic ray detector that consists of a 4 cm x 4 cm scintillator, a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), a programmable Arduino taking data, a small screen to read data, and supporting electronics. See Appendix A for more details. This suite of data activities describes experiments that can be done either at the singles or two-fold rate.
The CW Suite consists of the following activities:
- Singles rate (one unit only) mode:
- Radiation vs. distance
- Muon-mapping the school
- Two-fold rate (two units connected) mode:
- Cosmic ray rates vs. zenith angle
- Cosmic ray rates vs. vertical separation of counters.
- Other measurements
- Once students are used to working with the CW they may think of new experiments they can do.
These activities can be done with a class that has access to a sufficient number of Cosmic Watches to allow lab groups of 2 – 5 students. The measurements for each activity can be collected in two 50-minute lab periods.
Suggested assessment questions are embedded in the implementation section of each activity. Suggested responses are provided in italics.