Selected text from QuarkNet monthly reports:
June 2020
Ken Cecire met on Vidyo with the IPPOG group working on the new IPPOG website on June 3. They discussed overall design and the need for qualified people to help curate activities from the IPPOG database. Ken nominated several people from IPPOG, including QuarkNet/Fermilab staff member Spencer Pasero, other international colleagues, and these QuarkNet teachers: Mike Fetsko (Virginia), Marla Glover (Purdue), Joel Klammer (Virtual), Kevin Martz (Hopkins), Maria Niland (Virginia), and Mike Wadness (Boston).
September 2020
Uta Bilow and Ken Cecire met online with several IPPOG members and two young Ukrainian physicists to discuss bringing masterclasses to that country and again with IPPOG members on September 28 for the IPPOG website Steering Group meeting.
On September 22, members of the staff plus Cosmic fellow Dan Kallenberg and LHC-Neutrino fellow Joel Klammer had a videoconference with Tohoku University physicist Kazuo Tanaka, who leads the TanQ cosmic ray outreach and education program in Japan, physicists Ming-Chung Chu of Chinese University of Hong Kong and CM Kuo of Central University in Taiwan, and Argentine educator Ana Prieto. The topic was collaboration on cosmic ray studies, especially with the inexpensive MIT Cosmic Watch detector. Dr. Tanaka also showed the OSECHI detector developed at KEK that fits 3 scintillators with SiPMs and an arduino-based DAQ into a bento box. They developed plans to work together and meet again in October.
October 2020
Ken met with Archana Sharma of CERN on Skype on October 6 to begin planning for a collaboration for QuarkNet-India. Dr. Sharma will organize a cadre of Indian teachers who will then work online once per month with our own QuarkNet staff and fellows. There is hope that this can be a model for similar collaborations in the future with teachers in other countries.
November 2020
Ken continued the collaboration with Archana Sharma of CERN and Lifelab Foundation to build a program for QuarkNet India. They met on Skype on November 2 and November 30 and Ken put together a QuarkNet India group on the QuarkNet website; Archana and Ken collaborated on a Google document for planning.
December 2020/January 2021
Spencer Paseo, Shane Wood, and Ken Cecire participated in the International Masterclasses online “training session” - really an introduction to several masterclass measurements - on December 1 as part of the run-up to the virtual IPPOG meeting that was held December 2 to 4.
Ken continued the collaboration with Archana Sharma of CERN and Lifelab Foundation to build a program for QuarkNet India. They met on weekly Skype or Zoom except during the holiday break and put together the first “Life Lab Foundation QuarkNet-India” online workshop for Indian physics teachers on January 14. Marge Bardeen gave a special greeting and Shane Wood, Spencer Pasero, and Mark Adams made appearances to greet the teachers.
May-July 2021
On June 7, Uta Bilow and Ken Cecire met online with Connie Potter of CERN to discuss the possibility of constructing public masterclasses outside the school context and possibly at public events. The next day, they had a planning videoconference with the young physicists working on the Ukraine masterclasses. The masterclass was held on June 10, with Uta and Ken as well as QuarkNet staff and fellows helping to facilitate.
On July 24, Uta and Ken met again on Zoom to plan their talk and poster for EPS-HEP. They gave the talk in the Award Ceremony on July 26 on their work on International Masterclasses for which they shared the EPS-HEP Outreach Prize with ATLAS physicist Sascha Mehlhase.
Ken met with Kazuo Tanaka of Paul Scherrer Institute to discuss cosmic ray and other particle physics collaboration between QuarkNet and TanQ in Japan with a focus on the QuarkNet project to build small, inexpensive Cosmic Watch cosmic ray detectors for classroom use. On July 8, Ken, Mark, and Dave, and had another Zoom meeting with Dr. Tanaka to discuss both the Cosmic Watch, the efforts of a Japanese student to do a muon lifetime study without use of the Cosmic Ray e-Lab, and progress on addressing e-Lab problems. They also discussed use of Python notebooks to analyze cosmic ray data.
The online Teacher Program of the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications (ASP) met July 21-23, facilitated by Ken, Shane, and both LHC and Neutrino fellows. It was sparsely attended due to the school schedule and the internet situation in Africa but those who did participate were enthusiastic. The fellows also learned a great deal from each other. Ken then gave two online sessions as a lecturer on physics education for ASP on July 27 and 28. Ken joined again on July 29 to share results of the students’ CMS masterclass analysis.
April-May 2022
On April 13, Ken Cecire presented a talk via Zoom on International Masterclasses to the Schools on Nuclear Astrophysics Questions (SNAQ) in Germany via Zoom on behalf of his collaborator Uta Bilow. Uta and Ken submitted a paper in April based on their previous talk for African School of Physics. Uta and Ken chaired the online meeting of the Masterclasses-to-New-Countries Working Group on May 5 to prepare for the upcoming IPPOG meeting. Ken traveled to Podgorica, Montenegro for the May 11-13 IPPOG meeting. He met with Kate Shaw on a stopover in London on May 9; Kate is the new education and outreach coordinator for DUNE and they discussed collaboration with QuarkNet. Ken made Kate aware of QuarkNet resources and work on neutrino physics. In Podgorica, Uta and Ken chaired the meeting of the Masterclass Steering Group and gave reports on the activities of the groups the meeting of which they had chaired that month. Ken also attended the Global Cosmics meeting and participated in activities in the IPPOG meeting.
Cosmic Rays at Pyramid (NAUM) - Mark analyzed cosmic ray rates collected inside the pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico in March and drafted a report on the cosmic ray rates as a function of rock overburden, an estimate of the data collection time required to collect an image at angles near the horizon, and a measurement of the 2-muon background at low angles. Mark passed Fermilab radiation worker training but he was not needed for overnight data-taking shifts. NAUM’s first detector module was tested in the test beam at the beginning of April, using the mu2e collaboration’s existing readout system. On May 12 the pyramid project decided to purchase some readout modules from CAEN since chips are unavailable to produce the redesigned mu2e readout boards. NAUM also designed a detector mockup to prove that the final detector will fit inside the pyramid, during the next site visit in August. Mark also discussed an exhibit about applications of HEP technology with Maureen covering muography with NAUM pyramid photos.
June-July 2022
As explained in the Notre Dame report below, QuarkNet had a visitor from Japan who shared in both Notre Dame and national QuarkNet activities. Ken Cecire was involved with the International Organizing Committee of the African School of Fundamental Physics and Interactions (ASP), helping to plan the high school outreach program and to select students for the next iteration, to take place in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), South Africa November 30 through December 9, 2022. He had multiple Zoom meetings related to these in June and July.
Chuck Brown (Fermilab) is working with Stu Smith (Princeton) to create a physics lab at their high school alma mater in Canada that was recently rebuilt. Chuck inquired about adding QuarkNet cosmic ray detectors. Mark explained about leasing and offered to supply detectors from UIC, however, he also reached out to Lisle Robertson (University of Victoria) about existing CRMDs there and at TRIUMF. Lisle agreed to loan a CRMD to the high school, of which he is also an alumnus. Mark plans to assist recommissioning of Lisle’s CRMDs in four high schools in Victoria. Those five Victoria high schools above, plus school near TRIUMF with a CRMD, will form a reenergized QuarkNet cosmic ray hub in Canada.
Ken worked closely with the Notre Dame group on some cosmic ray projects prior to their “QuarkNet week” in August. Miki Ohtsuka from Waseda Honjo Senior High School in Japan visited and worked with the Notre Dame Center from June 8 to August 6 with breaks to visit other QuarkNet centers and to participate in Data Camp at Fermilab. Ken, Jeremy Wegner, Jeff Chorny, and Miki worked on the design of a project to attempt non-invasive cosmic ray muon studies of Native American burial mounds – Muographic Investigation of Mound Archaeology (MIMA) – which got as far as the testing stage but did not garner permission at Mounds State Park in Indiana. The group will refine the experimental method, build more support, and attempt to make actual measurements in 2023.
August 2022
Ken met August 3 and 31 on Zoom with members of the International Organizing Committee for the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications (ASP) to select students for ASP 2022 in South Africa. Ken made a zoom presentation on August 19 to explain the Letter of Intent that he and an international group of colleagues wrote for the African Strategy for Fundamental and Applied Physics (ASFAP). This letter was aimed at outreach and education to build student and teacher engagement in the goals of ASFAP.
Cosmic Rays at Pyramid (NAUM) - Mark’s Fermilab Arts and Lecture series presentation “Seeing inside a Mayan Pyramid” was viewed by over 500 people. Feedback has encouraged NAUM to launch a website soon so that the public can follow progress. Fermilab published the talk on YouTube: this had approximately 14,000 views. Other members of NAUM visited Chichen Itza August 14-18 to establish a local assembly lab and to begin electricity infrastructure installation.
September-October 2022
Ken Cecire met on September 8 via Teams with members of the Local and International Organizing Committees for the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications (ASP) to begin planning the high school teachers and learners programs for ASP 2022 in South Africa. Ken also participated in meetings of ASP 2022 lecturers and LOC/IOC via Zoom on September 14 and 28 as well as October 12 and 26. Ken had a meeting with ASP alumna Ann Njeri of Kenya about collaborating on the Teacher Program. Ken met on Zoom on September 9 with Miki Ohtsuka to discuss her participation in the upcoming IPPOG meeting as well as collaboration with her and her colleague Ana Prieto in Argentina on cosmic ray studies. Ana, Miki, Ken, QuarkNet-Japan mentor Kazuo Tanaka met again on Zoom on September 26 to plan further. Ken met with Uta Bilow of TU Dresden on September 27 on Zoom to plan for IPPOG as well as International Masterclasses 2023. They confirmed dates and set the schedule for the first circulars. Ken traveled to TU Dresden on October 17 to work on IMC with Uta Bilow. He came down with covid on October 21 and thus had to participate in the IPPOG meeting at CERN the following week from the guesthouse in Dresden. Uta and Ken co-chaired the Masterclass-to-New-Countries Working Group meeting on October 24 and the Masterclass Steering Group meeting on October 26, in which he also gave a presentation on the CMS masterclass. Uta and Ken co-presented plenary talks at both meetings later that week; Spencer Pasero and Ken gave a presentation on QuarkNet and Coding as well. Saturday October 29 was the special celebration of the 25th Anniversary of IPPOG; Ken and Uta made a presentation on the history of International Masterclasses; Marge Bardeen made a presentation as a past IPPOG co-Chair.