Friday Flyer - February 3, 2023
Spotlight on the Kansas State University QuarkNet Center
The KSU QuarkNet Center continues to be very active as it enters its 20th year. The center, led by mentor Bharat Ratra and lead teachers Penny Blue and Renee Teague, has specialized in serving teachers from small rural high schools across Kansas, with recent additions from Kansas City, MO and Arkansas. This center has a tradition of bringing together teachers for a full-day workshop in late winter centered around masterclass orientation that continued in 2022. KSU hosted a CMS masterclass in early April, 2022, attended by eight teachers and their students. The summer workshop was held May 31 through June 3 (School gets out early for the summer in Kansas!) and was devoted to prototyping the Higgs@10 workshop, along with neutrino, CMS, and cosmic ray detector activities. In addition, Brett DePaola, KSU Dept. of Physics, provided a few talks from his Physics for Policy Makers course. The teachers meet periodically on Zoom throughout the school year as they and their students coordinate and carry out a research project correlating muon rates to atmospheric pressure and temperature changes as weather systems move through the region. The project is led by Martin Shaffer.
News from QuarkNet Central
International Muon Week: Student groups around the world will use cosmic ray detectors to measure the muon flux, February 13-24. An international map will show participants' locations and their results. Students can also participate in video conferences hosted from Fermilab during the second week to discuss their results. To get started, fill out the registration form. More information can be found on this IMW23 page. If you have questions, contact Mark.
Summer Workshops at CERN: A reminder that the QuarkNet CERN Summer 2023 application and recommendation are both due today. For full details, see the News section of the Friday Flyer from January 20.
International Masterclasses: Masterclasses are getting close. Videoconferences start February 10 at CERN and on February 25 at Fermilab. You can learn more about the measurements by joining Question Time videoconferences: follow the ATLAS, CMS, or MINERvA links to learn more. Speaking of links, QuarkNet teachers can go to the Masterclass Stipends 2023 form to be paid for out-of-class hours spent with students on IMC 2023. Finally, here is the latest IMC Circular, fresh today from Dresden.
Masterclass orientations have begun! Most are done online and are useful for mentors and teachers. Learn more in the Orientations Library pages for LHC or MINERvA masterclasses and contact Spencer, Shane, or Ken to sign up. Orientations do not take long and are a great way to ramp up the teachers and any new team members. (Teachers can get a stipend for this as well.)
RFP: It is not too early to think about your 2023 QuarkNet program. The QuarkNet Request for Proposals for centers is now available so that you can crystallize ideas and request resources. Center leads, please complete this form ASAP, if you have not already done so, even if you are not yet sure of all details. Note that QuarkNet will continue to support both in-person and virtual experiences in 2023. If you have questions, please contact your QuarkNet staff member.
QED: QuarkNet Educational Discussions will pick up again starting next Wednesday, February 8 at 7pm CT (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT). During this session, neutrino fellow Mike Plucinski will talk about the NOvA Masterclass, a new masterclass measurement that will be piloted in a few locations in 2023. More information can be found on the QED page, including a sign up link.
Physics Experiment Roundup
Big news from MINERvA this week: physicists have, for the first time, precisely measured the proton's size and structure using neutrinos. More from Symmetry on neutrinos, including one article on new approaches to measure the masses of the neutrinos, and another on a proposed experiment to find the origin of cosmic neutrinos.
The W boson turns 40. (Well, the discovery of the W boson at least!)
From Fermilab News: Applying Nobel-winning research to develop a quantum network and this is what you get when you combine data from the Dark Energy Survey and the South Pole Telescope.
From APS Physics: "Sound Waves Mimic Gravity," "A Laser-Based Lightning Rod," and "Probing Majorana Neutrinos"
Resources
Fermilab presents "Wormholes in the Laboratory" a virtual talk that will be given by Joe Lykken on the evening of February 17. Tickets are free, but registration is required.
The February issue of The Physics Teacher includes several items that are free to access, including "Overcoming Friction" (and answer), "Flattening of Earth by Rotation: From Historical Experiment to Modern Toy," and one on simple adhesion force experiments.
Check out three musical pieces by Fermilab guest composer Suzie Shrubb that are inspired by particle physics research at the lab. In other art-in-science news: Fermilab names its 2023 artist-in-residence and its 2023 guest composer.
The Perimeter Institute is offering several short courses for teachers, and applications are open until March 16 for its EinsteinPlus summer workshop that focuses on modern physics. The PI also has a program available to high school students: ISSYP.
The Lives and Deaths of Stars is a workshop for teachers that will take place at Penn State this coming July 17-21. Check here for more information.
Just for Fun
We begin with a public service announcement from xkcd: Here's one indication that the textbook you're using is out of date.
On a completely separate note, it's likely that you all have heard about ChatGPT by now, OpenAI's chatbot that was launched in late 2022. Charles Bardeen recently asked ChatGPT to write a haiku about QuarkNet.
This was the result:
QuarkNet, a gateway
To the secrets of the universe
For students and teachers
When asked to write an ad jingle for QuarkNet, these were the results:
Unleashing the power of science,
Discover the unseen
Or
Quarks, protons, and more
QuarkNet brings it to your door,
Join the quest for knowledge.
QuarkNet Staff
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu