Data Activities Portfolio
The Data Portfolio is a compendium of particle physics classroom activities organized by data strand and level of student engagement. Follow the links provided for information about using the Data Portfolio to plan your students’ experience. Level descriptions explain the data analysis skills that students apply at each level: tasks in Level 0 are simpler than those in Levels 1 and 2. While each level can be explored individually, students who start in one level and progress to more complex levels experience increasingly engaging and challenging tasks. These activities are aligned with NGSS Standards, particularly NGSS Practices.
Your students can follow a path through activities in a data strand to better understand practices that lead to discovery. Each pathway provides connections between topics routinely covered in physics class and particle physics content and methods. Use the pulldown menus (Curriculum Topics and Strand) to find activities related to the content you are currently covering. Watch this screencast to learn more about sorting these activities.
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Activity Name | Data Strand | Level | Curriculum Topics | NGSS Practices |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Students analyze tracks in a bubble chamber. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC, Neutrino | Level 1 | Conservation Laws, Nature of Matter, Standard Model, Skill: Developing Models | 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 |
![]() Students discover the rules of particle transformations using transformation diagrams. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC, Neutrino | Level 1 | Conservation Laws, Nature of Matter, Standard Model, Skill: Developing Models | 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 |
![]() Students use conservation laws and vector addition to calculate the top mass from event displays. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC | Level 1 | Conservation Laws, Special Relativity, Standard Model, Skill: Uncertainty | 1, 4, 5, 7 |
![]() Students use conservation laws and vector addition to calculate the Z mass from event displays. |
LHC | Level 1 | Conservation Laws, Nature of Matter, Special Relativity, Standard Model, Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Uncertainty | 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 |
![]() Students use statistics to make an indirect measurement they can easily confirm. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC | Level 1 | Nature of Matter, Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Histograms, Skill: Uncertainty | 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 |
![]() Students use TOTEM data to determine if protons (quantum objects) obey classical conservation of momentum. |
LHC | Level 1 | Conservation Laws, Nature of Matter | 4, 5, 8 |
![]() Students explore the effects of electric and magnetic fields on particles. |
LHC | Level 1 | Electricity & Magnetism, Kinematics | 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 |
![]() Students analyze signals and noise first in audio and video forms and then look at signals and noise from physics measurements. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC | Level 0 | Instrumentation, Waves & Interference, Skill: Uncertainty | 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
![]() Students will learn the basics of coding using Jupyter style notebooks. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC, Neutrino | Level 0 | Skill: Coding | 1, 2, 4 |
![]() Students use Standard Model rules to build hadrons and mesons from quarks. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC | Level 0 | Conservation Laws, Nature of Matter, Standard Model, Skill: Developing Models | 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 |