Data Activities Portfolio

The Data Portfolio is a compendium of particle physics classroom activities organized by Data Strand, Level of student engagement, Curriculum Topics and NGSS Standards. 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.

Each Curriculum Topic provides connections between topics routinely covered in physics class and particle physics content and methods. Use the menus to find activities related to the content you are currently covering. Watch this screencast to learn more about sorting these activities.

We are making Spanish Language versions of the activities. To find the activities with Spanish versions, use the Curriculum Topics menu, scroll to the bottom, select Spanish Language then Apply.. Special thanks to Danelix Cordero-Rosario from the Puerto Rico Center for providing these translations.

QuarkNet has entered the world of data science. Use the Curriculum Topic menu to locate the Skill: Coding option then Apply.

We want your feedback on how the activities worked for you. Please complete the feedback form to help us improve our activities.

Activity Name Data Strand Level Curriculum Topics NGSS Practices
Making it ‘Round the Bend - Qualitative

Students explore the effects of electric and magnetic fields on particles. 

 LHC Level 1 Electricity & Magnetism, Kinematics, Spanish Language 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
Rolling with Rutherford

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, Spanish Language 1, 3, 4, 5, 7
Calculate the Z Mass

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, Spanish Language 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Calculate the Top Quark Mass

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, Spanish Language 1, 4, 5, 7
Signal and Noise: Cosmic Muons

In this introductory tutorial that, students learn about how to distinguish muon signals from background and instrumental noise.

 Cosmic Ray Level 1 Instrumentation, Waves & Interference, Quantum Mechanics, Skill: Histograms, Skill: Uncertainty 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Mean Lifetime Part 1: Dice

Rolling dice serves as the model for decaying particles.

 Cosmic Ray, LHC Level 1 Half-Life/Mean Lifetime, Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Histograms, Spanish Language 2, 4, 5, 7
The Case of the Hidden Neutrino

Students use momentum conservation to examine the decay of top-antitop pairs to determine what is missing from the event.

 LHC, Neutrino Level 1 Conservation Laws, Special Relativity, Standard Model, Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Uncertainty, Spanish Language 2, 4, 5, 6, 7
What Heisenberg Knew

Heisenberg knew that, at the quantum level, we cannot know everything, at least not all at once. Students explore uncertainties in measurements of complimentary variables to find this out for themselves.

 Neutrino Level 1 Kinematics, Quantum Mechanics, Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Graphing 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Histograms: Uncertainty

Students construct histograms, identify the best value to represent the data, and report the uncertainty in their answers. 

 Cosmic Ray, LHC, Neutrino Level 1 Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Histograms, Skill: Uncertainty 4, 5
Energy, Momentum, and Mass

Students examine data to find how energy, momentum, and mass are related.

 Cosmic Ray, LHC, Neutrino Level 1 Conservation Laws, Electricity & Magnetism, Special Relativity, Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Graphing 2, 4, 5, 7, 8