LHC Fellows Workspace
Submitted by kcecire
on Monday, October 8, 2012 - 10:48
This is where LHC and Neutrino fellows try out ideas, build agenda pages, and keep our important docs.
Description
Development and utilities for the QuarkNet LHC fellows.
Data Workshops Summer-Fall 2015
Tiny URL for this page: http://tinyurl.com/dw-schd15.
Current Schedule of QuarkNet Data Workshops
| Dates | Location, linked to page | Type | Facilitator(s) | Remarks | Est. No. Participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13-14 July | Syracuse University | CMS | Wood | 4 | |
| 13-16 July | Colorado State University* | Cosmic (pre-pilot) | Cecire | not ready for evaluation; in development | 6 |
| 21-22 July | Johns Hopkins University | CMS | Cecire, Dower | followed by CMS e-Lab 23-24 July | 20 |
| 27-28 July | University of Kansas | CMS | Dower | 10 | |
| 29-31 July | Fermilab | CMS | Wood | 20 | |
| 10-11 August | College of William and Mary | CMS | Cecire, Fetsko | followed by cosmic activities | 6 |
| 20-21 August | Buffalo | CMS | Wood | 8 | |
| 17 October | University of Puerto Rico* | Cosmic (pre-pilot) | Cecire | not ready for evaluation; in development | 12 |
* Not official Data Workshops but "Explorations" to develop new activities for future Data Workshops.
Off-shell Workshops
These are not QuarkNet workshops, though they may draw on QuarkNet resources.
| Dates | Location, linked to page | Type | Facilitator(s) | Remarks | Est. No. Participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9-10 July | Waubonsee Community College | Insights into Research | Cheung, Jindal, Glover, Schmit | CMS-oriented | 20 |
| 17 July | University of Notre Dame | iLED | Mooney, Ziegler, Chorny, Mullins | CMS and cosmic | |
| 27-31 July | University of Notre Dame | iSPI week 1 | Loughran, Mooney, Chorny | cosmic-oriented | |
| 3-7 August | University of Notre Dame | iSPI week 2 | Loughran, Mooney, Fetsko | CMS-oriented | |
| 19-20 Sept | University of Tokyo | QuarkNet/ILC Japan | Cecire, Shaffer | ILC and cosmic | 12 |
| 26-27 Sept | American School in Japan | Masterclass Opportunity | Cecire, Klammer | ATLAS and CMS | 5 |
Resources
- Workshop must-do items (includes evaluation surveys, registration for QN site and e-Labs)
- Data and CMS e-Lab Workshop pre-flight (resources for mentors to prepare)
- Masterclass Library 2015
- e-Labs
QuarkNet Data Workshop Draft Agenda
Data Workshops will help prepare teachers to use activites that emply data fom several particle physics experiments (as well as other sources). The workshops are designed to allow the teachers time to select and perform activities so that they can see what their students see. The teachers will also have time to carefully plan how they might use the activities with their students.
Objectives
Participating teachers will:
- Apply classical physics principles to reduce or explain the observations in data investigations.
- Identify and describe ways that data are organized for determining any patterns that may exist in the data.
- Create, organize and interpret data plots; make claims based on evidence and provide explanations; identify data limitations.
- Develop a plan for taking students from their current level of understanding data use to subsequent levels using activities and/or ideas from the workshop.
Sample 2-day Agenda
This is a draft, boilerplate agenda. We will provide more detail later this spring. Each workshop can be adapted to the needs of the hosting center. We haven't included useful things like lunch and coffee breaks in this draft. Groups might also consider augmenting this agenda with an additional talk or a videoconference with a research site (e.g., CERN or Fermilab).
First Day
Explore several Level One and Level Two activites. Set up and run the activity, collect and analyze data, draw and interpret plots. Reflect and discuss the activity's possible use.
- Introduction to workshop
- Physicist presentation on collection and analysis of data in research
- 2-4 Level One activities
- Basic Level 2 activity
- Reflection/discussion
Second Day
Explore Level Three activities or finish activities from the first day.
- Advanced Level 2 Activity
- Basic Level 3 Activity
- Discuss and plan classroom implementation of sampled activities
Data Workshops will have a unifying thread. A viable thread can be based on data from a particular experiment ; it can also come from a particular educational purpose to data from a variety of sources. Examples include a CMS or a Cosmic Ray Data Workshop as well as a Data Workshop intended to build the use of inquiry and statisitcs.
QuarkNet Data Workshop
Data Workshops will help prepare teachers to use activites that emply data fom several particle physics experiments (as well as other sources). The workshops are designed to allow the teachers time to select and perform activities so that they can see what their students see. The teachers will also have time to carefully plan how they might use the activities with their students.
Objectives
Participating teachers will:
- Apply classical physics principles to reduce or explain the observations in data investigations.
- Identify and describe ways that data are organized for determining any patterns that may exist in the data.
- Create, organize and interpret data plots; make claims based on evidence and provide explanations; identify data limitations.
- Develop a plan for taking students from their current level of understanding data use to subsequent levels using activities and/or ideas from the workshop.
Sample 2-day Agenda
This is a draft, boilerplate agenda. We will provide more detail later this spring. Each workshop can be adapted to the needs of the hosting center. We haven't included useful things like lunch and coffee breaks in this draft. Groups might also consider augmenting this agenda with a talk or video-conference.
First Day
Explore several Level One and Level Two activites. Set up and run the activity, collect and analyze data, draw and interpret plots. Reflect and discuss the activity's possible use.
Second Day
Explore Level Three activities or finish activities from the first day.
Discuss and plan classroom implementation of sampled activities
Soup-to-Nuts: How wide is my proton?
Tiny URL for this page: http://tinyurl.com/s2n-totemp.
Here is one way to use data from the TOTEM Experiment in the LHC to study wave properties.
The goal and why:
Students measure an upper limit to the diameter of the proton using proton elastic scattering data from the TOTEM Experiment. Because protons are quantum objects, they "interfere" with each other rather than simply bounce off as if there were marbles. We can use the interference pattern to determine an effective width, which we can think of as the closest approach the protons can make with each other and still collide elastically. Students use the same wave interference they see in optics!
What you'll need:
- TOTEM data file
- Tally sheet (one for each small group of students)
- Sticky notes
Set-up:
Create a histogram space on the wall or the black/whiteboard marked in 10's from -240 to +240 microrad.
There are 80 events, 2 per page, in the data file. Divide these among the students and then divide them into small groups.
What happens:
Each student should find the scattering angle of both protons (shown as red and green dots) in each "Angular Topology" display they are given.
To find the scattering angle, follow the blue double-circle up or down from the dot the shortest way to the x-axis of the plot. Read the scattering angle in microradians - these are very small angles! Each display should show a positive and a negative scattering angle, usually very close in magnitude to each other. Record both in the tally sheet, rounding to the nearest multiple of 10 and making a mark next to that value.
When students are done measuring, they should put sticky notes the histogram using the same number of stickies as marks on their tally sheet for each angle.
When all of the data is in the histogram, what you get should look like an interference pattern with the middle cut out. The reason is that, in the LHC, this is where the proton beam is and the TOTEM detector cannot reach there without interference with the operation of the accelerator. Student should use the spacing of the remaining maxima they do see estimate the order (n=0,1,2,...) of one of them. Using that angle, they can use a simple interference realtion to estimate the width of the proton interaction area: d = nλ/sinθ.
To get wavelength λ, you can either:
- Use E = hc/λ with E= 4 TeV = 4 x 1012 eV (1 eV = 1.609 x 10-19 J), c = 3 x 108 m/s, and h = 6.63 x 10-34 Js to solve for the deBroglie wavelength of the proton, or
- Give the students the wavelength of 3.1 x 10-13 μm to use.
Also, you should note that sinθ = θ to an extremely good approximation for the very small angles used here. Then if you have figured out n and θ, you can simply use d = nλ/θ.
Expect the result to be greater than the accepted proton diameter.
Soup-to-Nuts: Rolling with Rutherford
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Tiny URL for this page: http://tinyurl.com/s2n-rwr. Here one way for a teacher to get Rolling with Rutherford rolling with his or her students.
The goal and why: Students seek to find the diameter of a marble by indirect measurement. If a physicist wants to find the diameter of an atom in a crystal, for example, there is no question of using a ruler or a caliper. The atom is too small. Then she, like Rutherford, might fire particles at an array of those atoms and use numbers of hits and misses to figure out the size of the atom.
What you need:
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Set-up: For each student group, print 3 copies of the template. Cut out the crossed holes on one of these. Align and tape the pages together; fold the edges to make a barrier on each side. Back the holes with tape so the sticky side faces out through the holes. Tape the whole assembly down on a flat surface. Place a marble on each hole. The result should look something like the image to the right. The places where the papers join should be completely taped over so that the path of a marble rolled from the beginning (where the single marble is in the image) to the end (past the 5 marbles) has as little obstruction to its course as possible, You should also make a 0-10 horizontal axis on the wall, in a window, or on a chalk/whiteboard. Label the axis as the number of hits out of 10. This will serve for the histogram you will make. |
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What happens: Each student gets 10 rolls of the marble. He or she must take care to roll toward the 5 target marbles but must not aim. Misses are as valid as hits. When a taget marble is hit, it should be noted and the target marble returned to its place. The sticky-side-up tape should help. The student will get a score: the number of hits out of 10. The student should then take a sticky note and put it above her or his score on the histogram. Even if you have multiple groups working, all students put their scores on the same histogram. Get others to try, e.g. an administrator who happens to be passing by. You want statistics. If you do this activity in multiple classes during the day, let the histogram build over the course of the day. Here is an example of building a histogram with a relatively small group in a workshop setting:
Note that, in the last frame, the group found a peak value of the number of hits out of 10. You should do the same with your students. Note also that the simplest version of calculation of the diameter of the target is used in the last frame. This does not take into account the size of the rolled marble: in workshop from which the images come, the group used targets much larger than the marble which was rolled. Thus, perhaps the simple approximation was acceptable. In our case, the target and the projectile are the same size. To analyze the data, you need:
The probability of a hit from the point of view of the experimental data is P = n/10. The probability of a hit for marbles of diameter D in the simple approximation above is P = ND/L, based on the fraction of distance L that is blocked by target marbles. Life is not that simple, of course, so we modify that equation based on what we know about the marbles and their collisions. |
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Looking at the diagram to the right, note that the center of the rolled marble can approach a target marble within a cross-section of 2D to make a collision. There are N target marbles, so the total target cross-section is N(2D). For the cross-section of the rolling area, the center of the rolled marble can get no less than D/2 from a side barrier; our actual rolling cross section is L-D. Thus we modify our original simple equation: P = [N(2D)] / (L-D). Set the probabilities from experiment and from calculation equal to each other, so (n/10) = (2ND) / (L-D). After some algebra, D = Ln / (20N+n). |
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Question: Do we "check" our result against a measurement made with a ruler? The physicist measuring those atoms has no such luxury. The indirect measurement is the measurement. Maybe we do, maybe we don't.
Resources:
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