QuarkNet at UCLA 2004 
 

QuarkNet is a program that brings high school students and teachers to the frontier of 21st century research seeking to resolve some of the mysteries about the structure of matter and the fundamental forces of nature.

The UCLA QuarkNet Associate Teacher Institute, June 21-July 2, 2004

The Associate Teacher Institute joins UCLA physicists with about 15 high school physics teachers from the greater Los Angeles area. The Institute included lectures from UCLA faculty and researchers, demonstrations, field trips, discussions on science and pedagogy, and labs, culminating in the construction of cosmic ray detectors to be used in high school physics classrooms.

The program mentors are UCLA Profs. Jay Hauser and Michael Gutperle, and the lead teachers are Bob Baker (University High School, West Los Angeles) and James Warren (St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano).

See pictures from the Quarknet2004-UCLA workshop.

 

The agenda is shown below.

 

Week 1

Monday, June 21

Tuesday, June 22

Wednesday, June 23

Thursday, June 24

Friday, June 25

Morning 8-11:30 (Talks, Tours)

8-9:30 Introductions, logistics, and goals:

* Parking, stipends, class credit.

* Discuss and define goals of this workshop.

* What can participants present on June 28?

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:00 Knudsen physics lecture demos tour by Dr. Martin Simon:

11-12:00 Demonstration show by Dr. Art Huffman

8-9:30 Prof. Jay Hauser: introduction to Special Relativity

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10-11:30 Prof. Per Kraus: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

11:30-12:00 Discussion.

8-9: 00 Prof. Jay Hauser: introduction to Lagrangians

9:00-9:30 Prof. Michael Gutperle: Lagrangian of a spring and Field Theory model

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:30 Dr. Theresa Lynn: Cosmic rays and their detection: the CHICOS experiment, basic detection principles

11:30-12:00 Discussion.

8:00-9:30 Prof. Michael Gutperle: Standard Model

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-10:30 Al Siger – how to visualize the 8-fold pattern of particles

10:30-12:00 Prof. Michael Gutperle: Particle physics: the standard model. 

 

8:00-9:30 Prof. Katsushi Arisaka: Introduction to Cosmology

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:00 Prof. Katsushi Arisaka: Cosmology and particle physics. 

11:00-11:30 Discussion.

Comments:

-Coffee and bagels or donuts will be provided at 8 a.m. each day.

-Parking passes from information booth at corner of Hilgard and Westholme.

-Meet in Knudsen 6-107.

 

 

 

 

Afternoon 12:30-4:30 (Activities)

12:30-2:30 Beginning the Particle Adventure – Particle Zoo and Accelerator parts (Bob Baker).

2:30-3:00 Coffee break

3:00-4:00 Intro. to Interactive Physics (James Warren).

4:00-4:30 Discussion.

12:30-1:30 Particle Adventure - Detector part (Bob Baker).

1:30-2:00 Visit CHICOS web site (Bob Baker).

2:00-2:30 Coffee break

2:30-4:00 Talk about cosmic ray detectors, watch the video, and visit web site (James Warren). Form detector construction teams.

4:00-4:30 Discussion.

12:30-4:30 Cosmic ray detector construction: electronics (7 groups).

2:00-2:30 Coffee break

12:30-2:00 Prof. Jay Hauser: Discussion of electronics circuits

2:00-2:30 coffee break

2:30-3:30 Dr. Vahe Ghazikhanian: scintillators, photomultipliers and Cockroft-Walton high voltage supplies

3:30-4:00 Discussion.

12:30-4:00 More cosmic ray detector lab time: try to finish soldering circuit boards.

4:00-4:30 Discussion: which 5 dates to meet during following year?

 

Comments:

PICL lab on 1st floor Knudsen Hall has computers.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Week 2

Monday, June 28

Tuesday, June 29

Wednesday, June 30

Thursday, July 1

Friday, July 2

Morning 8-11:30 (Talks, Tours)

8:00-9:30 Participant sharing: useful activities and tools, experiences in science teaching

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:00 180F laboratory experiments: show spark chamber, phototube pulses, discriminator, logic.

11:00-11:30 Tour of 180A Nuclear lab with Dr. Vahe Ghazikhanian.

8:00-9:30 James Warren: Interactive Physics. 

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:00 Prof. Jay Hauser: CMS and the search for the Higgs particle

11:00-11:30 Discussion.

8:00-9:30 Prof. Michael Gutperle: Standard Model (II)

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:00  Prof. David Saltzberg: Neutrino particle physics.

11:00-11:30 Discussion.

8:00-9:30 Prof. Andrea Ghez: Black holes and Dark Matter

9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:00 Prof. Eric D’Hoker: General Relativity and String Theory

11:00-11:30 Discussion.

8:00-9:30 Prof. Roberto Peccei: The future of particle physics.
9:30-10:00 Coffee break

10:00-11:30 Wrap up lab work.

Comments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon 12:30-4:30 (Activities)

12:30-2:00 QuarkNet “catching some Z’s” part I (Bob).

2:00-2:30 Coffee break

2:30-4:30 Lab time – time to switch between electronics and mechanical construction and/or data taking?

4:00-4:30 Discussion.

12:30-2:00 QuarkNet “catching some Z’s” part II (Bob).

2:00-2:30 Coffee break

2:30-4:00 Lab time

4:00-4:30 Discussion.

12:30-2:00 Cosmic ray data taking at STRB

2:00-2:30 Walk back to Knudsen.

2:30-4:00 Final detector preparations.

4:00-4:30 Discussion.

12:30-4:30 Field trip to Griffith Park tunnel to take cosmic ray data with an “overhang”.

 

12:30-2:00 Discussion of results.

2:00-2:30 Coffee break

2:30-3:30 The JW comedy hour.

4:00-4:30 Discussion.

Comments:

 

 

 

* Other activities at Griffith Park?

* Otherwise, drive up Angeles Crest Highway to measure rate versus altitude.

 

 

 

 

 Other possible activities:

  • Other Quarknet activities.
  • Viewing Elegant Universe videos on Superstrings (Brian Greene).
  • Using CBLs for Texas Instruments calculators to take data.
  • Looking at data from the CSC detector at the STRB.

Links that came up as useful during the workshop:

·        Cosmology lectures by Prof. Katsushi Arisaka

·        Directory of bubble chamber photos from Scott Cameron

Potential activities for the follow-on days during the 2004-5 academic year are:

  1. Field trip to Mt. Wilson: measure cosmic ray rates versus altitude. See some photos from the Mt. Wilson trip.
  2. TBD
  3. TBD
  4. TBD
  5. Planning for the 2005 Associate Teacher Institute


Teacher perks: participants can earn up to 6 units of graduate physics credits from the workshop through Aurora College in Illinois. Also, there is a total support of $1150 per teacher, which covers: stipend of $300 per week for 3 weeks, and $250 for instructional materials.

If you are interested in participating, please fill out the application form, and send it to our local secretary, Anchi Kao, kao@physics.ucla.edu, 310-825-3441. Deadline for application is March 15, 2004.
 

Useful Links

QuarkNet home page

The Particle Adventure

UCLA Particle Collider Physics

UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy

University of California, Los Angeles

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

CERN

Particle Data Group

This program is funded by

National Science Foundation

U.S. Department of Energy