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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
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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. Snow University of Nebraska EPOG Meeting in Valencia 8 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
700 km Colored squares show 26 participating schools
Summer 2004 Workshop Activities Detector assembly and testing
Summer Workshop Activities Attaching phototubes
Summer 2004 Workshop Activities Oscilloscope and DAQ card lessons
Summer 2004 Workshop Activities Practice experiments to be performed at school
Summer 2004 Workshop Activities Detectors return to school
Event counter CROP data acquisition electronics card Developed by Univ. Nebraska, Fermilab (Quarknet), Univ. Washington Programmable logic device Time-to-digital converters To PC serial port GPS receiver input Four analog PMT inputs 5 Volt DC power • 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 Discriminator threshold adjust
User-friendly, LabView-based control and monitoring GUI Event counter Elapsed run time Two detectors firing at the same time Data stream for each event
Labview software Tabs 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
The Pierre Auger Observatory Northern Hemisphere: Utah or Colorado, USA Construction starts in 2006 Southern Hemisphere: Malargüe Province of Mendoza Argentina Being constructed now 1600 detectors, 3000 km2 each site
The Pierre Auger Observatory • 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
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 Auger Observatory 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 Data Acquisition Visitor Center 10 12 m2
Visitor Center at Auger Office Building PC and multimedia projection Seats 60 people Glass cabinet for library and displays Quarter-size FD mirror set-up from Karlsruhe
Visitor Center at Auger Office Building SD phototube display CNEA telescope Portable “beeping” Geiger counters Notebook of PAO news articles
Visitor Center Continued Success Students from Escuela Gendarme Argentino, Malargüe29 October 2004
Current Visitor Center Statistics • 13,544 total visitors registered by the end of 2004 • 12,975 Argentina, 569 other countries Compiled by Analía Cáceres
2000 Auger members participatingin Malargüe Day parade, November 2004 2004 2003 2004
New “James Cronin School” in Malargüe • Long effort to build new science school • coming to fruition • Large donation from the Grainger • Foundation • Funds managed by Auger Collaboration • Curriculum input Present school location Construction started March 2005
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
Local Organizing Committee named: S. Campi M. Herrera JWC School R. Sanchez F. Amaya – Adult education A. Piastrellini – Primary school Auger-Sponsored Science Fair Assembly Building to be cleared for inauguration and science fair • 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
Start of Northern Site Outreach Efforts Colorado candidate site • 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
Auger Visualizations from Univ. of Chicago By the “COSMUS” KICP outreach group Randy Landsberg, Mark SubbaRao, Dinoj Surendran http://astro.uchicago.edu/cosmus/projects/auger/ 1 TeV primary Aires simulation by 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
SALTA: Snowmass Area Large Time-Coincidence Array • 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
UndergroundNeutrinoObservatory 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, 2003 hosted by Chip deWolfe Marc WhitleyDiana KruisNancy Spletzer Aspen High SchoolBasalt High SchoolClear Creek High School Michelle Ernzen Laura French Lake County School Roaring Fork Valley Hans-Gerd Berns University of Washington Dan Claes University of Nebraska