Welcome to the QuarkNet Summer Boot Camp.
You will be working in one of six teams this week. Each team will analyze data collected from the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the Large Hadron Collider. These filtered data contain information about an indirectly observed particle. Your group is to discern as many of this particle's properties as you can and to present these results in a Friday conference.
Goals
We expect that you will learn about physics, teamwork, and teaching during the week's activities. The week will allow you to increase your understanding of the following:
Particle Physics
- Particle physics is rife with entry-level physics.
- Scientists must calibrate their detectors.
- Advances in particle physics are based on experimental evidence built from statistical evaluation of large amounts of data.
- International high-energy physics collaborations include a variety of skilled specialists.
- The Large Hadron Collider collides protons at the energy frontier.
You will also spend time with other QuarkNet teachers and have opportunities to discuss your professional interests.
- Reflect on how you can provide opportunities for students to engage in scientific inquiry.
- Consider how you will apply what you learn this week with your teaching colleagues at home as well as in your own classroom.
- Develop and practice teamwork norms that you can use in your classroom.
Getting Started
Each of you is a member of the CMS Collaboration. Your team will have a milestone seminar with the sometimes-helpful and usually-demanding Level-3 project manager in order to demonstrate comprehension of the milestones in the project. You will gain access to the data once your team succesfully demonstrates readiness in that seminar.
The first step in the process is to read the memo, which just arrived today. The memo gives your team its charge for the remainder of the week.