2015 Annual Report - Purdue Summer Workshop

Four teachers attended Purdue's 2015 summer workshop which was held June 23-26.  Our lead teacher (Marla Glover) was joined by two new teachers and one returning for a second year.  As we have typically done when working with new teachers, the workshop focused on introducing particle physics concepts and the study of cosmic rays using the QuarkNet cosmic ray detector.  This year we explored some ideas associated with probability and statistics and how these concepts might be taught using measurements made with the cosmic ray detector to provide concrete examples.  In additon, teachers explored the activities on which the MasterClass workshop for high school students are based.  This year we did not visit Fermilab, but did tour the nuclear reactor on the Purdue campus and the tandem Van de Graaff accelerator facility at Purdue's PRIME lab.

In March, Purdue hosted a MasterClass workshop in which 4 students from 2 schools participated.  In addition to the analysis of data from the CMS experiment, the students were given tours of the silicon detector assembly labs at Purdue, at which components for the upgraded CMS Forward Pixel Detector are being assembled.  Later in the spring, lead teacher Marla Glover hosted an additional MasterClass activity at her school in which 12 students from her school shared their findings with students from France.