Friday Flyer - January 10, 2025
Spotlight on the Vanderbilt University QuarkNet Center
The Vanderbilt QuarkNet Center hosted an engaging five-day teacher workshop in June 2024, organized by long-time mentor Bill Gabella in collaboration with QuarkNet staff. This center has a history of working with cosmic ray muon detectors. The 2024 workshop was no exception, as participants utilized the detectors and the Cosmic Ray e-Lab to conduct studies on flux, muon lifetime, and the time of flight/speed of muons. The program also featured informative talks on topics such as gravitational waves, pixel detectors, quasars, and black holes. Additionally, attendees explored activities from QuarkNet’s Data Activities Portfolio, including Muon Lifetime (Parts 1 & 2) and How Speedy Are These Muons, followed by discussions on how these lessons could be implemented in the classroom.
Since 2011, Bill Gabella has been a dedicated QuarkNet mentor for high school science teachers at the Vanderbilt center. He has maintained three detectors at Vanderbilt, supported teachers with their own detectors, and consistently organized dynamic summer workshops. In 2024, Bill stepped down as mentor as he prepared to relocate from the Nashville area. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Bill for his years of service, during which he provided enriching and inspiring experiences for educators. Bill's departure will not mean the end for this center, however. We are pleased to report that Vanderbilt Professor Will Johns will be taking over as mentor here, ensuring that the Vanderbilt QuarkNet center will continue into the future.
News from QuarkNet Central
2025 CERN Summer Programs: A reminder to teachers that applications are due on Monday, January 13 for two 2025 summer programs for teachers at CERN: High School Teachers (HST) and International Teacher Weeks (ITW). HST will run July 6-19, and ITW will be August 3-16. We are able to place four QuarkNet teachers in each of these programs with travel, subsistence and a stipend, all paid, thanks to the University of Michigan RET program. To apply, fill out the application form and have a recommendation sent to Ken's email, both by January 13, 2025. CERN also often accepts a few U.S. teachers by direct application. To try that route, visit the CERN International Teacher Programs page. You are free to apply using either or both application forms.
QuarkNet Educational Discussions (QED): The next meeting is on Wednesday, January 15 at 8:00pm EST. Our guest will be Jackie Bondell, Outreach Director for ARC Centre of Excellence, who will discuss her outreach activities. If you have any questions about QED, including how to join, contact Charlie Payne (paynec@ncssm.edu).
Mentors! The QuarkNet 2025 RFP is out: Let your QuarkNet staff member know if you did not get it or if you have any questions. We ask that you complete the RFP form by January 30, 2025.
Fermilab-based International Masterclasses 2025: Has your center registered for International Masterclasses yet? It is not too late! We still have a (reduced) number of slots, so go ahead and check out the Fermilab masterclass videoconference schedule, pick an open date or time, and send an email to Ken or Shane. Want more information? Read the latest circular that just came out today.
Beamline for Schools (BL4S): BL4S is a global competition for high school students offering winning teams the unique opportunity to conduct their own physics experiment at a CERN beamline. Check out the BL4S website for more information.
In Memoriam: Hector Mendez, one of our longest-collaborating QuarkNet mentors, passed away over the holidays. Hector served the teachers in the University of Puerto Rico with his warm personal interest, sense of humor, and advocacy for them. He also not only hosted masterclasses in Puerto Rico but also served as a moderator and a translator. He will be greatly missed.
Physics Experiment Roundup
The New Year is a good time to look back and reflect on accomplishments over the past 12 months. It's also a good time to look ahead. CERN highlights some of its accomplishments in 2024; be sure to check out the video with CERN 2024 highlights as well. The CMS experiment reflects back on 2024 in CMS Wrapped: A Year in Review. Fermilab has compiled a list of Ten Ways Fermilab Advanced Science and Technology in 2024; they have a video as well. Quanta Magazine looks back at The Year in Physics, Phys.org shared their top articles of 2024, and Symmetry considers the future of particle physics research.
The ATLAS collaboration has released a new high-precision measurement of the B0 meson lifetime and researchers at the LHCb collaboration have reported evidence that provides new insights into the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. Fermilab researchers receive funding for microelectronics research, Science News brings us an article about a major new neutrino experiment in China called JUNO. From Live Science: The 10 Biggest Science Experiments on Earth...note that more than one is particle physics-related.
Resources
We have a lot of quantum resources today; perhaps that is appropriate for the first Friday Flyer of 2025, the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. The January 2025 edition of The Physics Teacher has several articles relating to quantum: Happy 100th Birthday, Quantum Mechanics!, Explaining Quanta with Optical Illusions, The Quantum for All Students and Teachers Project: Sample Activities and the Historical Storyline Linking Them, and Secondary and University Students' Descriptions of Quantum Superposition. PBS' NOVA has a short video explaining quantum entanglement, and Space.com has an article on quantum entanglement on the scale of quarks and gluons.
Kirsty Duffy has a new video on the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) at Fermilab, noting that this detector will see over one million neutrinos each year. In the video, Kirsty interviews neutrino physicist Monica Nunes to learn more about the experiment.
Phys.org brings us Q&A: Inside the Search for Dark Matter, and back to this month's edition of TPT: Calculating the walking speed of sauropod dinosaurs using kinematics, Newton's second law, and simple harmonic motion.
Just for Fun
We begin the fun with some award-winning fluid motion videos and posters.
XKCD brings us Origami Black Hole and Time Capsule Instructions.
We'll end with an oldie (relatively speaking) but a goodie music video featuring a Rube Goldberg machine.
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu