U.S. Education and Outreach Activities … a selection of initiative updates

U.S. Education and Outreach Activities… a selection of initiative updates

• Physics Today article, January 2005

• The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) in Nebraska

• EPO in the Pierre Auger Observatory, Mendoza Province, Argentina

• EPO associated with Int’l Linear Collider workshops in Snowmass, Colorado, August 2005

Gregory R. SnowUniversity of Nebraska

EPOG Meeting in Valencia8 April 2005

Physics Today, January 2005

• “How to Popularize Physics” by Elizabeth Simmons, Michigan State University

• Former chair of the APS Division of Particles and Fields Education/Outreach Committee

• Excellent article that covers many US initiatives in particle physics and other subfields of physics, National Science Foundation support

The Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) in Nebraska

Colored squares show 26 participating schools

700 km

Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesDetector assembly and testing

Summer Workshop ActivitiesAttaching phototubes

Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesOscilloscope and DAQ card lessons

Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesPractice experiments to be performed at school

Summer 2004 Workshop ActivitiesDetectors return to school

5 VoltDC power

To PCserial port

Four analogPMT inputs

Discriminatorthreshold

adjust

GPS receiverinput

Eventcounter

Programmablelogic device

Time-to-digitalconverters

CROP data acquisition electronics cardDeveloped by Univ. Nebraska, Fermilab (Quarknet), Univ. Washington

• 43 Mhz (24 nsec) clock interpolates between 1 pps GPS ticks for trigger time• TDC’s give relative times of 4 inputs with 75 psec resolution

User-friendly, LabView-based control and monitoring GUI

Two detectorsfiring at thesame time

Data streamfor eachevent

Eventcounter

Elapsedrun

time

Labview softwareTabs for different experimental procedures

Simultaneous data-taking at 3 sites in Lincoln

UNL Ferguson Hall

Lincoln High

Zoo School

• Concerted effort to collect data continuously since mid-August 2004• Each school writes data file, collected twice per week.• Analysis file-by-file at UNL• We are observing inter-school coincidences within 1 microsecond• These are candidates for air showers with E > 1018 eV

Some lessons learned

• Big variation among schools in independent activity/investigations during school year. Some real successes, some inactive sites

• Close contact very important during academic year

• Scheme for replacing/training new students as classes graduate important

• Classroom integration, affect on curriculum is not automatic. Scheme to guide this needed.

• Hardware and software delays create frustration and idleness

• Hard to recruit for long summer workshops

• High school schedules are packed, hard to get full participation in academic year Saturday meetings of all participants

#S

#S

The Pierre Auger Observatory

Southern Hemisphere:Malargüe

Province of MendozaArgentina

Being constructed now

Northern Hemisphere:Utah or Colorado, USA

Construction startsin 2006

1600 detectors, 3000 km2 each site

Status of Argentina site• 800 out of 1600 surface detectors installed• 3 out of 4 fluorescence telescope buildings complete• Southern Hemisphere site complete late 2005• First physics results to be presented at the ICRC 2005 conference in India in July

Northern Hemisphere site• Construction to start in 2006• Utah vs. Colorado site selection in

Setting in Argentina• 6000 people in remote small town Malargüe• Auger collaboration presence quite noticeable• Positive impact desired at many levels• Education/outreach activities organized in a distinct subtask led by G. Snow• Example: tanks carry names provided by local school students

The Pierre Auger Observatory

CERN’s 50th Anniversary, October 16, 2004

30,000 visitors overall, thousands of visitors to the Auger Observatory display

CERN’s 50th Anniversary, October 16, 2004

Co-spokesperson Hans Blümer with visitors

Visit from CERN Director General,Robert Aymar, who knows AugerObservatory well

Fermilab’s 15th Floor of Wilson Hall

• “From Quarks to the Cosmos” display features Auger Observatory

• Detector models and other displays mounted for opening of FNAL astrophysics center, November 2004

Visitor Center at Auger Office Building

Visitor Center10 12 m2

Data Acquisition

Seats 60 people

Quarter-size FD mirrorset-up from Karlsruhe

Visitor Center at Auger Office Building

Glass cabinet forlibrary and displays

PC and multimediaprojection

Visitor Center at Auger Office Building

SD phototube displayCNEA telescope

Portable “beeping” Geiger countersNotebook of PAO news articles

Visitor Center Continued Success

Students from Escuela Gendarme Argentino, Malargüe

29 October 2004

Current Visitor Center Statistics

Compiled by Analía Cáceres

TOTAL DE VI SI TANTES "OBSERVATORI O PI ERRE AUGER"

AÑO 20035318

AÑO 20045548

AÑO 2001 336

AÑO 20022342

• 13,544 total visitors registered by the end of 2004

• 12,975 Argentina, 569 other countries

Auger members participatingin Malargüe Day parade, November 2004

2000

2003

2004

2004

Other Malargüe Day parade photos

New “James Cronin School” in Malargüe

Construction started March 2005

Present school location

• Long effort to build new science school coming to fruition

• Large donation from the Grainger Foundation

• Funds managed by Auger Collaboration

• Curriculum input

Observatory Inauguration, November 2005

• Major public relations and media event

• November 10-11, 2005, in Malargüe

• Expect 75 government officials, ambassadors, funding agency representatives

• Ribbon cutting ceremony, talks, tours of remote detector sites

Auger-Sponsored Science FairLocal Organizing Committeenamed:S. CampiM. Herrera JWC SchoolR. SanchezF. Amaya – Adult educationA. Piastrellini – Primary school

• To be held after November 2005 inauguration ceremony in the Assembly Building: Friday evening and Saturday, Nov. 11-12• Team of Auger collaborators will serve as exhibit judges• Schedule and milestones discussed with Local Org. Committee

• Solicitation and pre-selection of exhibits• Local and regional participation

Assembly Building to be clearedfor inauguration and science fair

Start of Northern Site Outreach Efforts

• J. Harton, G. Snow met with Southeast Colorado Board of School Administrators to discuss teacher and student projects, 1 September 2004• Follow-up meeting with regional teachers planned in 2005• Host: Lamar Community College• Similar meetings planned in Utah, facilitated by University VC for Research• Laying groundwork for Education/Outreach part of Northern Site proposal

Colorado candidate site

Auger Visualizations from Univ. of Chicago

By the “COSMUS” KICP outreach groupRandy Landsberg, Mark SubbaRao, Dinoj Surendranhttp://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/auger/

1 TeV primary

Aires simulationby Maximo Ave

EPO at ILC workshop in Snowmass, Colorado, August 2005

• Major ILC workshop in Snowmass, August 14-27, organized by the American Linear Collider Physics Group and the ILC

• Associated EPO activities• 2 public lectures• Duplicate of Fermilab’s Quantum Universe Exhibit in downtown Aspen• “Dark Matter Cafe” in a Snowmass restaurant with special food/drinks and information for the public• 3-day teacher professional development workshop for teachers in QuarkNet and SALTA – cosmic ray detector array party and Hispanic outreach program in Carbondale• Enhancement of ILC web sites for the public, teachers, students

• EPO activities organized by representatives from APS Division of Particles and Fields, QuarkNet, and CROP

• Workshop web site http://alcpg2005.colorado.edu

Colorado• Aspen High School, Aspen, CO

• Basalt High School, Basalt, CO

• Roaring Fork Valley High School, Carbondale, CO

• Lake County High School, Leadville, CO The highest-elevation school in the U.S. -- 10,152 feet ASL Illinois• Wheaton North High School, Wheaton, IL

SALTA: Snowmass Area Large Time-Coincidence Array

Underground Neutrino Observatory

The proposed next-generation underground water Čerenkov detector

to probe physics beyond the sensitivity of the highly successful Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan

U.S. sites being considered:

The Henderson (Colorado), Homestake (Lead, SD) and Soudan (Minn) mines, the San Jacinto Mountain (CA) and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, WIPP (New Mexico).

Henderson Mine Visit

Dec 4, 2003hosted by

Chip deWolfe

Marc Whitley Diana Kruis Nancy Spletzer Aspen High School Basalt High School Clear Creek High School

Michelle Ernzen Laura FrenchLake County School Roaring Fork Valley

Hans-Gerd BernsUniversity of Washington

Dan ClaesUniversity of Nebraska