Prepare Students

Suggested preparation activities for ATLAS, CMS, MINERvA, and NOvA masterclasses

Particle physics research requires the use of indirect evidence to support claims.

• Rolling with Rutherford (virtual adaptation)

Students will be able to:

• Describe the claim and indirect evidence in Rutherford’s experiment.
• Identify the peak in a histogram and explain what it means.

ATLAS and CMS

MINERvA and NOvA

The Standard Model is the current theoretical framework for our understanding of matter.

Choose one or both:

• Quark Workbench (virtual adaptation)
• Shuffling the Particle Deck (virtual adaptation)

Students will be able to:

• Describe how quarks combine to form mesons and baryons.
• Explain how fundamental particles relate to each other based on their characteristics.

The Standard Model is the current theoretical framework for our understanding of matter.

• Shuffling the Particle Deck (virtual adaptation)

Students will be able to:

• Explain how fundamental particles relate to each other based on their characteristics.

The behavior of particles is governed by conservation laws and mass-energy conversion.

Choose one or both:

• Calculate the Z Mass (virtual adaptation)
• Calculate the Top Quark Mass

Students will be able to:

• Apply conservation rules to measurements to provide evidence for unobserved particles. 

The behavior of particles is governed by conservation laws and mass-energy conversion.

• The Case of the Hidden Neutrino

Students will be able to:

• Use conservation of momentum to determine the magnitude and direction of the net momentum vector of the particle detected in an event.
• Explain the possible significance of “missing momentum” in a collider physics experiment.
• Describe the properties of a neutrino that make it impossible to detect in the D-0 detector.

NOvA (optional preparation)

Scientists form and refine research questions, experiments, and models using observed patterns in large data sets.

• Research Using Coding

Students will be able to:

• Design or adapt a coding notebook for developing the coding techniques. 
• Import a large data set into a coding notebook.
• Select a data analysis technique appropriate to the research question.