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 (Pathway and Strand) to find activities related to the content you are currently covering.

Activity Name Data Strand Level Pathway NGSS Practices Topic
ATLAS Z-path Masterclass

Students are physicists for a day at a university or lab where they work with physiists to how to analyze real particle physics data in the form of event displays.

 

 LHC Level 2 Histograms, Particle Collisions, Uncertainty 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Data Analysis
Mean Lifetime Part 2: Cosmic Muons

Students learn how physicists measure muon lifetime.

 Cosmic Ray Level 2 Cosmic Muons, Histograms, Mean Lifetime 2, 3, 4, 5 Data Analysis, Measurement, Particle Composition, Student data
ATLAS Data Express

ATLAS Data Express is a short investigation in which students inspect and characterize Z events in the LHC and distinguish muons from electrons.

 LHC Level 2 Histograms, Particle Collisions, Uncertainty 4, 5, 8 Data Analysis, Measurement, Momentum Conservation
ATLAS W-path Masterclass

Students are physicists for a day at a university or lab where they work with physicists to how to analyze real particle physics data in the form of event displays.

 LHC Level 2 Histograms, Particle Collisions, Uncertainty 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Data Analysis
CMS Masterclass J/Psi

Students are physicists for a day at a university or lab where they work with physicists to learn how to analyze real particle physics data in the form of event displays.

 LHC Level 2 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Data Analysis, Measurement, Momentum Conservation, Motion of Charged Particles, Particle Composition
Making it ‘Round the Bend - Quantitative

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

 LHC Level 2 Electricity & Magnetism 4, 5, 6, 7 Data Analysis, Electric Potential, Lorentz Force, Measurement, Motion of Charged Particles
Mean Lifetime Part 3: MINERvA

Students collect data from muons which decay in the MINERvA detector in the Fermilab NuMi beamline to understand particle decay and determine the muon lifetime.

 Cosmic Ray, Neutrino Level 2 Histograms, Mean Lifetime, Uncertainty 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 Data Analysis, Measurement, Particle Composition
CMS Masterclass WZH-path

Students are physicists for a day at a university or lab where they work with physicists to learn how to analyze real particle physics data in the form of event displays.

 LHC Level 2 Histograms, Particle Collisions, Uncertainty 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Data Analysis, Momentum Conservation
Cosmic Ray e-Lab

Students experience the excitement of scientific collaboration in this series of investigations into high-energy cosmic rays.

 Cosmic Ray Level 3 Cosmic Muons 1, 3, 4, 6 Data Analysis
CMS e-Lab

Students have an opportunity to learn how to analyze data to calibrate the CMS detector and participate in discovery science (as particle physicists do).

 LHC Level 3 Histograms, Particle Collisions, Uncertainty 1, 3, 4, 6 Data Analysis