2014 Annual Report - HU/WM/GMU

Submitted by kcecire
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HU-WM-GMU QuarkNet Center

Virginia QuarkNet Center 2014 Activity Report                                    9/17/14

The Virginia QuarkNet Center currently has 10 active high school teachers from across Virginia, and has been actively recruiting additional participants. Josh Erlich from The College of William and Mary, Phil Rubin from George Mason University, and Vassilis Vassilikopoulos from Hampton University are the mentors. Several teachers share leadership responsibilities, with Deborah Roudebush acting as the lead teacher. Mike Fetsko is an LHC Fellow and attended the Boot Camp/Data Camp redesign meeting in October. Hank Horn is active as a Leadership Fellow.
 
Masterclass 2014
The Virginia center held two Masterclasses in March 2014. One was focused on ATLAS date and was held at George Mason University in northern Virginia. Phil Rubin acted as the mentor, and lead teacher Deborah Roudebush was the main organizer. Another was focused on CMS data and took place at the College of William and Mary, with Josh Erlich mentoring and lead teacher Mike Fetsko organizing.
 
Workshops
The Virginia center generally has a 2-3 day summer workshop and 2 or 3 Saturday workshops. This year, they met at the Bryan Innovation Lab of The Steward School near Richmond on November 23, 2013 and at Oakton High School in Northern Virginia on February 22, 2014.
 
The workshop at the Steward school included a talk by Josh Erlich on the concept of holography in gravity, a measurement of the speed of light using chocolate and a microwave oven, a discussion of the relevance of relativity for GPS led by Deborah Roudebush, and planning for recruitment and future activities.
The workshop at Oakton High School included a talk by Phil Rubin, orientation for the Masterclass, discussion of the new AP physics curriculum, and planning for future activities.
 
The summer 2013 workshop took place August 12-14, 2013 at the College of William & Mary and included a tour of Jefferson Lab and labs at William & Mary, talks by Josh Erlich on physics beyond the standard model and Camillo Mariani (who visited from Virginia Tech) on neutrinos, discussion led by Deborah Roudebush on inquiry & uncertainty and on the new AP Physics curriculum, and planning for future activities.
 

 

2014