Friday Flyer - April 10, 2026
Spotlight on International Masterclasses
International Masterclasses are drawing to a close for 2026. In fact, the CERN masterclass videoconferences wrapped up over a week ago and the final IMC circular is a nice farewell for the year. However, masterclasses never really end. Fermilab masterclass videoconferences went on a short hiatus and then are back April 17, 18, and 25. TRIUMF masterclasses will be held on May 2. In addition, there are masterclasses without videoconferences all year at different locations around the world. And do not forget World Wide Data Day, coming in Autumn 2026.
On the Fermilab-QuarkNet side, there was some specific news. CMS masterclasses suffered the unavailability of our regular CIMA analysis program this season. However, our team adjusted and we were able to use Google Sheets effectively to fill in the gap for both FNAL- and CERN-connected CMS masterclasses. The MINERvA masterclass is still strong due to its simplicity and nice results while NOvA continues to grow. And look for more in 2027!
the CMS masterclass at Notre Dame in March.
News from QuarkNet Central
Center leaders: time to plan! Summer workshops are coming up soon. Our mentors and lead teachers have done a good job responding to the RFP and now the next step is to plan dates and activities. To find possible activities or inspiration, you might try the National Workshops page. It had been hard to find in quarknet.org but now if you log in you can see an "Opportunities" button that leads to a link to the page, like this:
We hope that will be more handy going forward. Questions? Ideas to share? Plans partly or fully formulated? Contact Ken, Shane, or Spencer.
About that National Workshops page: We have three new entries, subtly marked, "NEW!" The AI UnWorkshop is a chance to work out together the perils and promise of Artificial Intelligence for our classes. The DAP Workshop is a wide but deep exploration of the Data Actvities Portfolio. As for the third...
Big thing! Save the dates! There will be a CMS Open Data Workshop with a special emphasis on pedagogical uses at Notre Dame this summer, July 28-30. Teachers can participate in person or online (there is some limited travel funding) or whole centers can meet on those days and participate remotely with mentor assistance: that would make for a pretty great center workshop! Details will follow in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
QED is coming: save that date, Wednesday, April 22, too. The QuarkNet Educational Discussions meeting will be on Zoom (link; passcode hint "he wrote the book") at 8:00pm EDT and the subject will be Computation in the Classroom, from Data to Simulations and How to Integrate Programming as a Physics Teaching Tool.
PTRA bootcamp: AAPT Physics Teacher Resource Agents is offering an "intensive three-day professional development workshop designed for physics educators ready to take the next step in their professional journey by becoming effective teacher leaders" this summer. Learn more and apply!
Physics Experiment Roundup
From CERN and Interactions: The Baryon-Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE) has for the first time transported captured antimatter from one place to another. (They even have a truck.) Can antimatter pods be in the future? Also at CERN but reported in Fermilab Frontiers, CMS is developing a new ultrafast detector to possibly sort out dark matter in the future. Also in Fermliab Frontiers, relaying from New Civil Engineer, we get a different look at DUNE from folks who make the caverns where it will live.
And now from APS Physics we have something that is not particle physics and is not matter, but is a wave guide.
Resources
We may not be on BASE but let's take a swing at antimatter. In The Physics Teacher, Don Lincoln asks, "Does Antimatter Fall Up?" This article pairs nicely with Don's videos What is Antimatter? and Subatomic Stories: Antimatter. In terms of reaching BASE, we might try Don's How do scientists handle antimatter? video. Looking at quantum physics, The American Journal of Physics has an exposition of the Wigner's friend paradox involving observers and quantum states. This reminds us of Schrodinger's cat, with a nice video by Physics Girl, and the Twin Paradox, the relativity classic. Don Lincoln has a video on that: Twin paradox: the real explanation.
Just for Fun
We have some serious fun in Just for Fun this week. Seriously. First, there is APS Physics with a physics grad student dance champion. How do you do that? You enter the Dance your Ph.D. contest, of course. (It's real.) And then, well, we consider a spherical cow in the American Journal of Physics. (This is real too.) And, since we've established that we can pair text with videos like we pair pancakes with fine root beer, let's pair this article with a spherical cow video.
As for xkcd - yes, we go there again - we pair a recent cartoon with a classic cartoon. And, yes, there is a serious connection here too.
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: markadams74@gmail.com
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu