University of Minnesota
Contact Information
Dan Cronin-Hennessy
hennessy@physics.umn.edu
This year we held the annual QuarkNet workshop on July 28th through July 31. Sixteen teachers participated in our program. Ten of these teachers were participating for the first time. The expansion of our program was due to recruiting efforts by the lead teachers, Shane Wood and Jon Anderson. The new participants attended a special workshop day on May 15, 2008 for the purpose of introducing them to the goals of the program.
During the workshop we provided rooms, computer access and dining arrangements during the workshop. I also met directly with the QuarkNet teachers during the workshop and arranged for meetings with other HEP faculty. During the first phase of the workshop the mentor teachers presented the goals of the program and technical guidance on obtaining further information. Shane and Jon also provided detailed examples based on their previous experience on how to bring particle physics into a high school. They also provided introductory presentations on particle physics and the standard model.
Professor Heller and I served as the mentors. We discussed details of our research and how high school students can access specific information on the WEB. Three researchers from Minnesota, Professors Broadhurst, Professor Courant, and Dr. Reissetter gave lunch talks. Professor Broadhurst presented his work on applications of particle physics to cancer research. Professor Courant presented the history of atomic bomb development at Los Alamos and Dr. Reissetter presented the latest results on dark matter searches. Professor Heller made a special presentation on his findings in physics education research. Tom Jordan attended this years workshop and gave presentations on Cosmic Ray Muon detectors and the use of eLab in order to bring actual particle physics data to high school classrooms. The workshop concluded with a trip to the Soudan laboratory to visit the MINOS and CDMS experiments. This opportunity is a unique component of the the Minnesota program.
Overall I think the most successful part of the program is the fact that teachers with common goals meet and begin to form functional networks in which they can share experiences and strategies. In fact, a new component of the workshop was a session that allowed each teacher to present an activity or information resource that they use in their classrooms. This was the highlight for me as the session made me aware of resources that I could use at the college level for education.
The workshops provide for the teachers a means to clarify points of science and ongoing research. This year synergetic activities were also achieved with other components of Minnesota's outreach. Shane Wood participated in the RET program and furthered WEB based documentation for teachers. Shane also recruited a teacher from the QuarkNet group to participate in the upcoming Mastersclass program. This program was a success that we would like to continue. Finally, Jon Anderson related to the teachers his summer visit to CERN, which allowed a few of his students to visit the Large Hadron Collider and report on their experience through a real-time blog.
