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Physics TheoryNet Meeting, September 21, 2013
Room 218 Dana Building, Northeastern University MINUTES -------- Attending: Mike Wadness, Medford HS Rick Dower, Roxbury Latin School Chris Siren, Groton-Dunstable Regional HS Richard Levergood, Londonderry HS Scott Goelzer, Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Elaine Picard, Concord-Carlisle H.S. Nancy Najmi, Reading Memorial HS Nick Nicastro, Wachusett Regional HS Michael Hirsh, Needham H.S. Tomasz Taylor, Northeastern University Tim Stamnitz, Winnisquam Regional School District Regrets: Brent Nelson, Northeastern University Matthew Headrick, Brandeis University Ken Olum, Tufts University John Samperisi, Monadnock HS Noreen Scarpitto, Reading Memorial HS Brandon Murakami, Rhode Island College Don Fries, Community School, Tamworth, NH Per Berglund, University of New Hampshire Ann Kaiser, La Salle Academy Nivedi Das, Sharon H.S. Albion Lawrence, Brandeis University Tasneem Zahra Husain Jesse Thaler, MIT Jose Juan Blanco-Pillado, Tufts University A. Spring School Visits The schedule was affected by winter school cancellations which for some teachers created unusual stress during the spring term when making up for the snow days. A1) Mike Wadness/Jesse Thaler. Actually, no stress here. Mike filled the extra week of classes with QuarkNet particle physics days. After students warmed up by analyzing Z decays at LEP, Jesse came to explain the theoretical background and put experimental data in the context of the standard model. A2) Rick Dower/Matt Reece and Tasmeen Zahra Husain Tasmeen and Matt visited Roxbury Latin in the Fall, focusing on the connection between string theory, particle physics and cosmology. A3) Chris Siren/Matthew Headrick Chris commented on the possible impact of Matt Headrick visit with Alejandra Castro, a female Harvard postdoc, on gender equity in his classes. It could be a coincidence, but there are more girls enrolled now in AP physics. A4) Nick Nicastro/Tom Taylor Tom was able to visit Wachusett Regional at the end of April, where he visited one senior physics class and one honors level Modern Physics class. The topics ranged from LHC measurements (including the recent Higgs discovery) to a discussion of the expanding universe. A5) Elaine Picard/Tom Taylor Tom visited Concord Carlisle at the very end of April. He presented some background for the recent Higgs discovery, explaining the concepts of Higgs field and Higgs boson. Helmholz coil was used to illustrate magnetic forces on moving charges, and their role in keeping protons on a circular path at the LHC. B. Equipment No equipment changed hands at the meeting. We ask everyone with equipment in their possession to plase let Tom or Brent know before the winter meeting so that we can coordinate transfers between interested parties. The power supply for Milikan experiment is not working properly -- Mike Wadness will bring it to NU for the next meeting and we will arrange a repair at PASCO. C. Grant. In the spirit of the spring meeting (see minutes), we accepted a one-year "bridge" grant from NSF, at the current funding level, as an encouragement for submitting a more "serious" proposal next year. The trickiest part will be to explain the "intellectual merit" of our activities. This will require connecting the project with the existing literature on the merits of scientific outreach. Teachers are much more competent in this area than physicists, so we will be asking for help, especially from Mike Wadness whose Ph.D thesis was based on his Quarknet/Theorynet experience. We will start working on the proposal in a couple of weeks. D. Social media, internet etc. There was agreement that we need to create a social media interface. Since Google+ offers a good setup for sharing folders and collaborative work, we will set up an account shortly. It will connect to a webpage: the idea is to hire students to develop a "professional" webpage. Also the flyer needs an update. E. There is an interesting outreach program running in Boston area, "There is a Scientist in my Classroom": https://sites.google.com/site/sciinclassroom/ which is running a workshop on 11/5 (Tuesday) at MIT: https://sites.google.com/site/sciinclassroom/application-faqs Tom was contacted by Anique Olivier-Mason who encouraged us to participate and share experiences. If teachers are interested, we will help with covering travel expenses etc. F. Pairings for 2013/24 Elaine Picard -- Ken Olum Rick Dower -- Tasneem Zahra Husain and Matt Reece Scott Goelzer/ Tim Stamnitz -- Per Berglund Michael Hirsh -- Daniel Jafferis Ann Kaiser -- Brandon Murakami Richard Levergood -- Tom Taylor Nancy Najmi / Noreen Scarpitto -- Brent Nelson Nick Nicastro -- Tom Taylor Chris Siren -- Matthew Headrick Mike Wadness -- Jesse Thaler and Jose Juan Blanco-Pillado G. Teachers' stipends may be late due to sequestration/shutdown H. Next Meeting: January 11 with a snowdate of January 25. _____________________
Tomasz Taylor, Professor Department of Physics 208 Dana Research Center Northeastern University Boston, MA 02115 |