PARTICLE Classroom Cosmic Ray Physics Kevin McFarland University of Rochester Department of Physics and Astronomy 29 March 2003 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE Overview of PARTICLE Goals: Teacher and Student Enrichment Support Student Experimentation Build University-Secondary School Ties Popularize/Publicize Particle Physics Research 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE Overview of PARTICLE Methods: Summer Teacher Institute Particle Physics, Cosmic Rays, Other Modern Physics Topics, Pedagogy Construct Classroom Equipment Classroom Outreach Visits by Physicists to Classrooms Research Support “PARTICLE day” student conference 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Particle Physics and NY State Curriculum 2001 NYS Regents’ Curriculum Mostly covers taxonomy, not “big picture” but with some extra effort, can do both! E.g., students should be able to explain how quarks make up a proton or neutron (“nucleon”) But the nucleon is a perfect lab for understanding about the four fundamental forces of nature! 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Focal Point: Cosmic Ray Telescope Primary “hook” is the cosmic ray telescope for the classroom Easy to build About $400/unit So we can donate Computer-based DAQ Flexible data analysis Export data to Excel, etc. 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

PARTICLE Teacher Summer Institutes Program: ⅜ Lecture and Discussion Taxonomy and big picture of particle physics Including experimental methods, lab tours, etc. Other modern physics: relativity, quantum mech. ½ Lab work Construct cosmic ray telescopes Prototype student labs ⅛ Discussion of Pedagogy, Classroom Applications 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

PARTICLE Teacher Summer Institutes “Lead teachers”, faculty mentors, University students all work together to run institute “Lead” and returning teachers especially important for productive discussions of classroom applications and realities! Bulk of time is self-directed work Laboratory time builds relationships 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE Classroom Activity Physicist (student or faculty) contact can be a catalyst for classroom research Short lecture, Q&A, demonstrations 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE Classroom Activity Innovative example from 2001-2002 year Naples classroom has a proposal/evaluation process to allocate telescope time to research teams throughout the school year! In other classrooms, used as enrichment or just during “standard model” unit Telescope in Joe Willie’s classroom, Naples, NY, Central School District 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE “PARTICLE Day” For students, gives a concrete research goal and positive feedback Program: lectures, student presentations, poster session, lab tours. 75 students from 8 schools in 2002 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Student Results Cosmic Ray absorption in material Absorption in different materials Greece Arcadia student measures cosmic rays beneath swimming pool Answers are not always correct! 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE Student Results Time variation and atmospheric conditions Naples students observed and evaluated statistical significance of correlation between vertical rate and barometric pressure (!) 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Student Results Pittsford students measured tm (2.2 ms) see muon stop in detector and measure time until decay electron (m→enn) observed excerpt from student presentation 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE Student Results Pittsford tm (cont’d) Data analysis included noise subtraction and fit Guided by example with Excel prepared by graduate student Lifetime (tick)= 69.00 Lifetime (msec)= 2.16 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Other Recent Student Studies Correlations between rates in California (SLAC online telescope) and Rochester Searches for daily/seasonal rate dependence Analog pulse-shaping of phototube output Investigated bandpass filtering of the ~50MHz pulse Absorption of horizontal cosmic rays Students (correctly) concluded low rate led to a background problem! 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE

Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE Conclusions PARTICLE at Rochester is an exciting program participants from Rochester, rural surrounding areas and Syracuse Buffalo too? hint, hint… have funding through 2006 application process for this year is underway; due May 1st Please come join us! 29 March 2003 Kevin McFarland, U of Rochester, PARTICLE