Oklahoma QuarkNet - Annual Report 2021

The University of Oklahoma (OU) and Oklahoma State University (OSU) QuarkNet groups again joined forces for a lively summer QuarkNet Teacher Workshop.  This year's workshop was hosted at OU from July 20-22.  After a virtual workshop in 2020, it was great to see some familiar faces IN PERSON, and to meet some new QuarkNet participants!  We were joined by 5 teachers, 3 of whom were new to QuarkNet, providing a nice balance of experience and enthusiasm.  The teachers represented 5 different area high schools, including urban and rural, public and charter schools.  We were also joined by Shane and Susan from QuarkNet central, who put together a fantastic agenda.

This year, additional emphasis was placed on including teachers serving low-income communities.  To do so, we identified a list of area school districts with a large fraction of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunch.  We then contacted school principles, science curriculum coordinators, and physics teachers from these high schools with a flyer describing QuarkNet activities in OK and a description of the Teacher Workshop.  While OSU has held several MasterClasses in recent years, OU has not held any.  Therefore, the main goal of the workshop was to prepare new QuarkNet teachers to bring their students to OU for future MasterClasses, to enrich the experience of students from low-income communities and to establish pipelines of students from these communities to OU, which will hopefully improve the diversity of the OU Pysics & Astronomy department.  

Each day of the workshop featured a talk on some aspect of particle physics from a different OU professor (John Stupak, Brad Abbott, and Howie Baer).  Joe Haley (OSU) also joined us and setup a cloud chamber.  Teachers conducted the ATLAS MasterClass activities, and performed a number of other activities from the QuarkNet Data Activities Portfolio that they can perform with students in their classrooms.  We also toured a cutting-edge condensed matter physics lab that develops novel solar panel technology.  At the conclusion, multiple teachers expressed interest in bringing students to OU for a future MasterClass.

Thank you to everyone involved for making 2021 a huge success!

John Stupak (OU)
Joe Haley (OSU)