VQN

I am probably going to need some help with uploading data. We will be calibrating this Friday and they I hope to upload some data. It won't be as special as Mike's but we'll try.

Our cosmic ray club will be in for some exciting times in the next week or two. They've been taking data for about a month to compare normal stacked plates vs. stacked plates with a sheet of aluminum foil placed over them. The results are in and the plots definitely show a big difference. They will be doing a poster about it soon. Perhaps I will “guide” them into wondering about what would happen in the foil is placed under the detector…

Since parting company from Mike, Shane, and Mike in the Cincinnati airport, we've been steadily collecting data and continuing to test our CRD in Lexington, South Carolina. I discovered that the school district tech team tightened up the firewall system. That resulted in closing off the opening we had for operating our CRD's computer by remote control. At least it happened at the end of the summer. It was nice not having to go over to the school every day during the summer.

The students who work with the CRD do not do so through one particular class. Instead, they come in before and after school. They have pretty much claimed Friday afternoons after school is over for the week to come in for 30-40 minutes. They wanted to be “official,” so we submitted a form to become an active “club” in the school. We've gained 2 new students so far this year and another has expressed strong interest. These are all freshmen and sophomores, so they haven't had pre-calculus or a dedicated physics class yet. They've had basic physics and basic chemistry in their physical science class. There isn't too much knowledge about particle physics there yet. I had given them an assignment to do some general reading about cosmic rays and most of them did it. There wasn't much depth, but it was a great start.

Some of the ideas they've been kicking around are:

1. They want to “firm up” the CRD like the group did at Notre Dame, so they are looking for materials to put between the scintillator plates and the PVC tubes so that the plates line up better. They also want to make the entire thing able to be turned and moved safely.

2. They want to test different materials (such as a lead sheet) to cover the CRD stack and see how they affect flux.

3. They want to construct a Faraday cage around the stack to see if it has any affect on the flux. They plan on varying the spacing between the metal. The last mention of this was to try using something like window screen of different sizes.

4. They want to run a comparison for flux between the stack positioned vertically and horizontally. Perhaps also different angles.

5. They want to run a comparison for flux between horizontal positioning parallel to earth's magnetic field lines and perpendicular to them.

6. They *really* want to take a summer tour trip of 2-3 days to FermiLab. Funding will be an issue. If anyone knows of a program or source of funding that might even partially pay for the expenses, please let us know!

Just thought everyone might like an update.

I've heard from Mike F. in Virginia and he is excited about getting his CRD up and running again. How about Jim in St. Louis and Darla in Florida?

Mike Bennett
Lexington, South Carolina

What was decided about EVO meetings for this upcoming school year?

Looking forward to seeing everyone in just a few short weeks!

Beginning Tuesday 30 June 2009, Ken Cecire will now be QuarkNet National Staff Teacher at the University of Notre Dame. While continuing to work with colleagues at Hampton University, he will no longer be on the Hampton U staff. His new addresses are

kcecire@nd.edu
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Kenneth Cecire
QuarkNet Center at Notre Dame
929 North Eddy Street
South Bend IN 46617
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Tel 574-631-3343
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Fax 574-631-3977

We have finished the calibration process and are currently taking data every day with the detectors arranged in a simple vertically stacked position.

Fermilab has sent back my detectors (Thanks Dave H. and Bob P.)!

Now I need to track down a computer here at the high school to hook them up to and test them out.

Let the fun begin!!!

To provide an informal attendance record, please edit and add a check each week when you read this blog.

no Summer Virtual QuarkNet sessions on EVO are scheduled at this time. Check back from time to time for the latest information.

get together of Virtual QuarkNet participants, scheduled for July 31 - Aug 1 at Notre Dame

• assembling cosmic ray detectors
• figuring out how to use the detectors and share data
• some joint sessions with Notre Dame's QuarkNet group

The new DAQ and GPS unit arrived and have been connected. The students are currently working through the calibration procedure. They met last Friday after school for about 2 hours to begin the process. Hopefully we will get a lot done this Thursday morning. Our school is giving the H.S. Exit Exam and two from the student team will be able to come in and work for about 3 hours on the project.

They were talking a couple of weeks ago about finding money to go on a trip to FermiLab perhaps in the summer of 2010. If anyone has any info about $$$ that might be available for such a thing, let me know.

Mike

I would just like to say what a great time my students and I had at the Masterclass on Tuesday at University of Florida. Tom, we appreciate all you did and we really liked the campus. Ken you did a great job and my students are really grateful for the opportunity. They learned a lot. We had a good day. It was nice meeting the other teachers.

Wow that was great Dave. I appreciate your thoughts and must agree.

My wife and I attended TWO memorial services yesterday. One of Native American variety I found profound. And as I often find happens, my thoughts wandered to physics and a footnote that I should add to my teaching:

We physicists find the conservation laws are immensely valuable tools for understanding the world in which we live, predicting what events will happen, and modifying aspects of our world to better serve our best interests. But there may be considerable value in also realizing that there are other aspects of our universe which are not conserved. None of our individual lives are conserved. Love is not conserved. Beauty is not conserved. So unlike gold or gems which are prized as possessions, the beauty of a flower or a sunset can't be hoarded away. Those aspects of the universe are best shared, enjoyed, and celebrated when they are present and that is possible. There is no value in hiding our love, concern and caring for other people since those are opportunities which once past, are gone. Our lives are not entities which can be stored away, but once lived, we cannot go back in time and live differently.

I'm certainly NOT proposing that we stop either teaching or using the conservation laws. But we live in a culture where collecting material wealth, things, and the latest gadgets is encouraged. Treating all aspects of life as collectible conserved things likely leads to a life less than ideal. So perhaps somewhere in our courses we should add just a footnote about the importance of those things which aren't conserved.

To provide an informal attendance record, please edit and add a check each week when you read this blog.

• March: EVO Booking: Virtual QuarkNet on Sunday, March 8, 8PM EST, 7PM CST, 5PM PST (entered by Mike B)
• April: EVO Booking: Virtual QuarkNet on Sunday, April 5, 8PM EST, 7PM CST, 5PM PST (entered by Mike W)
• May: EVO Booking: Virtual QuarkNet on Sunday, May 10, 8PM EST, 7PM CST, 5PM PST (entered by dave t)

On a recent sunny, warm Winter day I took my afternoon walk along a nearby beach, enjoying the view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca with San Juan Islands and the volcano, Mt Baker, in the background. I'm fond of beaches because there is often so much to pique my interest. A pair of Bald Eagles were sharing a dying old Fir with a hawk. The incoming tide seemed to just cover a small sand spit, attracting many ducks and seagulls. A pair of immature gulls insisted on sitting on the beach unusually close to me. And a train of small waves of unknown origin was being amplified as it apparently entered shallow water.

I recently gave Jean, the QuarkNet evaluator, a hard time. She was preparing to visit a beach and active volcano in Costa Rica. I posed that watching the volcano, flowing hot lava, as unusual as it is, might soon be boring compared to the visit to the beach.

But in reality, these are fabulous times when we human creatures can visit such places, revel in the awesome beauty, and try to understand the phenomena we observe using our best physics and other sciences. I think on the grand scale about the stars orbiting too fast in galaxies and galaxies orbiting in clusters, both needing far more mass than what has been catalogued: the missing Dark Matter. I think of the so distant exploding type 1a Supernovae which aren't slowing their travel away from us as we'd expect from gravity, but actually accelerating away as if propelled by some unknown repulsion with an energy beyond all know: the Dark Energy. I think of the ancient flash from the big bang, the cosmic background microwaves carrying telltale clues about these things and much more for us to detect and decipher. And I think of the monstrous LHC being readied to investigate by laboratory experimentation both the smallest and these largest phenomena in our universe.

New technology has brought us iPhones and iTouch connecting us by radio waves to both each other and the Internet of knowledge and ideas. Access by Facebook, Twitter, blogs and pornography provide us ways to share our thoughts, try to understand what brings us pleasure and optimize our human relations. As we try to reach new and superior understanding about our universe and ourselves, some people will be offended by what we ponder and what we discover. But as our wealth of history suggests, we likely will benefit both individually and as a society from our efforts. It truly is a great time for scientists, teachers and students to be alive and be a part of the quest. virtual QuarkNet is a small part of that quest.

Do you agree?