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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rolling with RutherfordStudents 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 |
 Calculate the Z MassStudents 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 |
 Calculate the Top Quark MassStudents 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 |
 Signal and Noise: Cosmic MuonsIn this introductory tutorial that, students learn about how to distinguish muon signals from background and instrumental noise. |
Cosmic Ray | Level 1 | Instrumentation, Skill: Histograms, Skill: Uncertainty | 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 |
 Mean Lifetime Part 1: DiceRolling dice serves as the model for decaying particles. |
Cosmic Ray, LHC | Level 1 | Half-Life/Mean Lifetime, Skill: Developing Models, Skill: Histograms | 2, 4, 5, 7 |
 The Case of the Hidden NeutrinoStudents 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 | 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
 What Heisenberg KnewHeisenberg 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: UncertaintyStudents 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 MassStudents 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 |
 QuarkNet STEP UP: Careers in PhysicsLesson #2 in QuarkNet STEP UP Series on diversity and inclusion. |
Level 1 | Diversity & Inclusion |