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Particle Physics More Accessible to a Wider Audience Spreading the net Educational Specialist Kenneth Cecire and Professor Mitchell Wayne discuss KENNETH CECIRE & PROFESSOR MITCHELL WAYNE MITCHELL CECIRE & PROFESSOR KENNETH the long-term benefits in making particle physics more accessible to a wider audience particle physics and the research community environments. Why is this beneficial to in order to spread information and excitement both student and educator? about our field, and to teach and inspire future scientists. One of the original ideas was to KC: This goes to the heart of what we do at involve participants in the early stages of big QuarkNet, and what our masterclasses try experiments running at CERN in Geneva, to achieve. Because we have online learning Switzerland. At that time, the future young environments, first of all, we open new ways to researchers – graduates, postdocs and young learn. For example, one of the current actions faculty members – were in junior high and high taking place in the US is the flipped classroom; school. We now provide national development it is a new pedagogical model I’ve heard of programmes for physics teachers around the where students go online, absorb a particular Could you provide context to the country by bringing them together and working lesson through a video or interesting website masterclasses and the QuarkNet project; with them on their research. and complete their ‘homework’ at school under when did they first begin and what are their the mentorship of a teacher. This reversal of main aims? How do you balance the need for lab-based lectures and homework changes the dynamic research with practical application and field of teaching entirely. KC: The masterclasses began in the UK in the work? Is there still a need for research for late 1990s. Their main aim is to successfully research’s sake? Closer to what we do, however, is that we bring particle physics data to students, to provide students and teachers with new make measurements and understand a little MW: Of course there is still a need for basic kinds of opportunities. For example, visiting more about how physicists conduct their research. Most if not all of our practical a university or talking with members of work. Part of that is achieved through working applications came from basic research. A CERN and Fermilab in their own classrooms on the data, and the other is by working wonderful example of this was the recent 25th is already a tremendous opportunity, but directly with physicists. anniversary of the World Wide Web, which was data is another significant aspect. We give invented at CERN during their basic research. students the opportunity to put their fingers Since then, QuarkNet has become very When magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was deep into data. They see science as it is involved in the growth of International invented it was not intended for healthcare, being conducted. Masterclasses. QuarkNet staff and teachers but for looking at the properties of protons. collaborate with physicists to organise the There are so many areas that have advanced Do you work with industry and/or other masterclass institutes and videoconferences because of basic research. Of course, there is universities in your pursuits? for the Americas and the Pacific, and to also an innate desire to understand and explore develop the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) the world around us and I don’t think you could KC: The only example that comes to mind here masterclass measurements used worldwide. turn it off even if you wanted to. would be through the cosmic ray detectors. We have developed relationships with vendors who MW: QuarkNet began in 1999. The aims are to Educational resources are becoming can customise tailored electronics. We work bring high school teachers and students into increasingly integrated into online learning with many other universities – that’s the nature of particle physics, and we are collaborating all the time. For QuarkNet, innovation is key. By what means does it remain cutting-edge in its teaching? MW: Because we are tied to particle physics, innovation happens almost automatically. It’s important to emphasise that it has been a long programme (more than 15 years) and as such we are always looking out for new ideas and techniques, and other programmes. What QuarkNet has now, in terms of its facilities as a national programme, is completely different from what it had at the beginning. For instance, in our cosmic ray eLab programme we provide free small particle physics detectors to classrooms that the students can use to collect data and then share across the world and with other classrooms. Masterclasses and eLabs are innovations that have been adopted by the programme as we have grown, and we will continue to adopt new ideas in the future. It’s a MASTERCLASS IN AUSTRALIA, OCTOBER 2014 continuous process. WWW.RESEARCHMEDIA.EU 117 KENNETH CECIRE & PROFESSOR MITCHELL WAYNE Feeling the pull of particle physics For the past 15 years, an education and outreach programme at the University of Notre Dame has been building its reputation as a support system for students and teachers alike. In order to dispel physics appearance as an elusive subject, the QuarkNet programme offers stimulating tools to change the perceptions of budding young scientists TO THE UNINITIATED, particle physics can seem Wayne currently serves as one of programme’s of a pendulum, students are encouraged to think a mysterious and impenetrable discipline despite Principal Investigators. In addition to funding from about topics such as Einstein’s theories of mass- some proponents of physics – Einstein, Newton, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and energy equivalence, the nature of quarks and the Heisenberg, Faraday – and their achievements Office of Science at the US Department of Energy Higgs boson. being firmly rooted in the popular consciousness. (DoE), QuarkNet also receives considerable support The discovery at CERN of the Higgs boson in from Chicago’s Fermilab and the ATLAS and CMS – Almost all centres have progressed from the initial 2012 brought the field to the fore once again and Compact Muon Solenoid – projects at CERN. With three-year growth stage into the operational has helped to re-establish physics as a worthy over 50 centres across the country, each partnered phase of the programme. QuarkNet was originally pursuit, but the disparity between what students to at least one national laboratory or research- conceived as a long-term venture, taking time to are learning in school and how it is being applied based university, the collaboration at the heart of establish a solid network of research relationships at the cutting-edge of discovery can at times the programme represents a significant investment between students, teachers and physicists; as a make the realities of a career in particle physics a from the wider physics community in developing person’s interest in a subject at school is often daunting prospect. tomorrow’s young scientists. deeply influenced by the quality of teaching they receive, QuarkNet aims to exploit this fact by For nearly two decades, physicists and education enhancing teachers’ skills to their fullest. After TEACHER DEVELOPMENT specialists have been running an inclusive joining the programme, a teacher finishing their programme in the US dedicated to bringing the All disciplines have time-honoured ways of being first year will have already spent a week working subject to a much wider audience. Piquing the taught, and physics is no exception. If traditional with colleagues at Fermilab on a research scenario, curiosity of students, helping teachers develop methods have brought the subject this far then attended a seven-week research appointment at a their skills and enabling a broader understanding of these methods must have their value, but QuarkNet geographically convenient institution and received physics among the general public, QuarkNet offers also recognises the value in staying at the forefront support in their education from mentor physicists. a chance to see how the discipline is applied and of education. Despite bestowing important lessons, “We have seen teachers build stature in their school what is involved with the realities of the field. “If Cecire highlights the inadequacies in the way and community; their principals and the students’ you watched a documentary about string theory, students are currently taught to collect and analyse parents look at them differently,” states Wayne. you’d be amazed but it remains very arcane,” data: “We would swing a pendulum 10 times, states Kenneth Cecire, an Education Specialist and obtain data points and draw a conclusion. But the A PHYSICS MASTERCLASS National Staff Teacher located at the University way physicists actually work is to take millions of of Notre Dame (UND) in Indiana. Attempting data points”. The ability to demonstrate these Organised around key questions concerning the to remove the perceived obstacles surrounding realities is largely dependent on the Internet and origins of mass and the evolution of the Universe, particle physics, the programme puts students in the level of communication it allows. The QuarkNet the centres stay at the forefront of the discipline by touch with its practitioners to show them what website offers learning tools for students and allowing students to participate in activities such as research they conduct. teaching resources that puts them in touch with particle detection through the programme’s eLabs. the activities taking place at CERN and Fermilab so With the CMS detector, for example, students learn Directing the University’s QuarkNet Center that research using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to analyse data to find fundamental particles and alongside Cecire is Professor Mitchell Wayne. A for example, is not hidden behind an impenetrable rediscover previously measured results. Exploring specialist in elementary particle physics at UND, shroud of mystery.
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