Friday Flyer - September 20, 2024
This is the first Friday Flyer of the 2024-2025 academic year. For those new to the Friday Flyer...The FF is a newsletter that comes out about twice a month during the academic year, usually on Fridays :-). Look to these for features, news, updates, and announcements from QuarkNet.
Spotlight on Summer 2024
Summer is a busy time for QuarkNet, and summer 2024 was no exception. More than 30 different QuarkNet centers held meetings and workshops over the summer, with many of them incorporating National Workshops from QuarkNet central. Drew University, our newest center, held a workshop in May to kick off activities there and to introduce teachers to the program.
QuarkNet camps bring together teachers from centers all over the country for teacher professional development and to build community. Data Camp was attended by 22 QuarkNet teachers and held at Fermilab July 14-19. Teaching and Learning fellows led this camp in which participants analyzed CMS data, investigated activities from the Data Activities Portfolio, discussed classroom implementation, toured Fermilab facilities, and attended presentations by physicists. Coding Camp 1 was held virtually June 17-21, and Coding Camp 2 was held July 16-26 at Fermilab, and included a mix of new participants along with fellows from various QuarkNet centers to practice their skills at programming and lesson design. On the international front, eight QuarkNet teachers attended one of the two-week CERN summer programs for teachers.
Nearly 50 teachers participated virtually in the QuarkNet Summer Sessions for Teachers (SST), led by Dr. Allison Hall, a physics faculty member at the U.S. Naval Academy. QuarkNet staff, fellows, and teachers had a strong presence at the AAPT Summer Meeting in Boston, by giving talks, workshops, and by participating in AAPT Committee work, sessions, etc. And a big congratulations to long-time QuarkNet friend and Fermilab staff scientist Don Lincoln, who was presented with the 2024 Klopsteg Memorial Lecture Award at the AAPT meeting.
As we wind down from a busy summer, QuarkNet staff look forward to continuing to support centers and teachers as we settle into the new school year. Please do not hesitate to contact any of the QuarkNet staff members...contact information can be found at the bottom of the Friday Flyer.
News from QuarkNet Central
About the new QuarkNet website: There is a login issue you should be aware of. Our old site allowed users to login using their email address as their username, while the new site does not. If you're in the habit of using your email as a login, please be aware that you'll need to switch to using your standard username. If you did not get a chance to update your profile this summer, please do so by logging in, then click on My Stuff, then click Edit. Scroll down to update your profile, then be sure to click on Save at the bottom of the page when your update is complete. If you need help, contact Shane or Ken.
Data Activity Portfolio (DAP) Update: QuarkNet's DAP now has 42 activities with the recent addition of Plotting a Consensus...check it out! Look for additional new activities to be posted this fall. A reminder...when you view data activities in the DAP while logged in to the QuarkNet site, you can read comments at the bottom of each activity that are left by users for suggestions, implementation ideas, and other advice. Feel free to add your own comments as well!
Upcoming Dates:
- World Wide Data Day (W2D2): Registration is now open for World Wide Data Day 2024, which is set for November 14, 2024.
- International Cosmic Day 2024: The 13th International Cosmic Day will take place on November 26, 2024. Click here for more information, including how to register.
- AAPT Winter Meeting 2025: The AAPT WM 2025 will be held January 18-21, 2025 in St. Louis, MO. The deadline for submitting a presentation for WM25 is Friday, September 20. Click here to submit a presentation.
- Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Teacher Conference: The 2025 KITP Teacher Conference will focus on particle physics, and will take place in Santa Barbara on February 8, 2025. Stay tuned to future Friday Flyers for more information.
- International Masterclasses 2025: Fermilab-based International Masterclasses will be held March 10 - April 11, 2025. Stay tuned to upcoming Friday Flyers for future updates.
Teacher and Mentors with QuarkNet Cosmic Ray Detectors: Please ensure your detectors are up and running and that you are at least periodically uploading data to the Cosmic Ray e-Lab. If you are having troubles with your detector, please contact Mark Adams (adams@fnal.gov) or Dave Hoppert (hoppert@fnal.gov) for assistance. If you are no longer using your detector, please contact Dave Hoppert (hoppert@fnal.gov) in order to return your detector to Fermilab at Fermilab's expense. Reminder: These detectors are property of Fermilab, and must be returned if they are no longer being utilized.
Physics Experiment Roundup
Big news from the CMS experiment at CERN this week as researchers there weigh in on the mass of the W boson. This highly anticipated CMS result agrees with the Standard Model and other measurements of the W mass, except for the measurement from the CDF experiment that analyzed data from proton-antiproton collisions during the Tevatron years at Fermilab. Learn more from Symmetry, CMS news, and this CMS video. QuarkNet staff also checked in with three University of Notre Dame particle physicists to get their reactions to this big news. See what they had to say.
In other news from CERN...The ATLAS and CMS experiments recently announced they have observed quantum entanglement in the high-energy environment of the LHC, opening up a new perspective on the world of quantum physics.
From Symmetry, an article on the intensifying search for dark matter, the elusive substance that is theorized to make up a significant portion of the universe but remains undetected. New results from the LZ experiment set a new record in the search for dark matter.
On the neutrino front at Fermilab...Researchers at the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) recently announced that they have identified the detector's first neutrino interactions, marking the beginning of what will be several years of detection and analysis. During this time, researchers expect to learn more about neutrinos, but since SBND uses liquid argon to detect neutrinos, they also expect to gain new insights in understanding liquid argon neutrino detectors that can inform future experiments such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).
Speaking of DUNE...A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held this summer at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) marking the completion of the excavation of the giant caverns that will house the DUNE far detectors.
Resources
The September edition of The Physics Teacher is out and includes several free articles, including one on defining weight and weightlessness, one on a LEGO-based physics lab, and one on revealing the research lives of theoretical physicists.
Don Lincoln has recently posted a couple of videos about the Higgs: The Race to Find the Higgs Boson, and How the Higgs Boson was Discovered. From Quanta, an article by Matt Strassler on how the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles.
From MinutePhysics: Does Pressure Keep the Ocean from Freezing? and The Color Temperature Paradox.
Much of the Physics Experiment Roundup above focused on recent W mass news from CMS, but some of you may be wondering, "What is the W boson, anyway?" Don't fear, Symmetry is here with its "Explain it in 60 Seconds" W boson edition.
Dr. Nergis Mavalvala of MIT will be giving a public lecture at KSU called Gravitational Waves: A New Window to the Universe on Monday, September 23 at 4:30 PM CDT. For those of you not located in Manhattan, KS, you watch via the livesteam that you can link to here. (H/T Bharat Ratra)
Just for Fun
From XKCD: surfing on a geological time scale, an interesting pie chart, and storage tank security.
From The Physics Teacher: Figuring Physics Phil's Folly (from Paul Hewitt), along with the answer. Also from TPT: Shadow Hands (from John Adam), and the answer.
The recent full moon (with partial lunar eclipse) put on quite a show, and was a moon with many adjectives. We leave you this week with a picture demonstrating how bright this "supermoon" was as trees cast shadows in the moonlight...
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu