Attention High School Physics Teachers ... Apply to Join QuarkNet!

QuarkNet is an education outreach program that is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Its aim is to engage high school physics teachers and their students on cutting edge research projects with university researchers who work in the area of elementary particle physics. Elementary particle physics has to do with the basic building blocks of everything in the universe and the forces that hold things together. This is exciting stuff which you and your students will enjoy learning more about.

• Teachers will learn how to build a muon detector for their classroom and gain ideas about incorporating principles of elementary particle physics into their lessons.
• Teachers and students will learn how to download "event visualization" software to their school computers to study particle event data from a major research project called BaBar ( the mascot of the BaBar collaboration is the dapper elephant in the children's story with this name).
• Added funding is being sought to support all participants for a 3 day trip to Fermilab near Chicago. They will listen to research scientists explain their current research, visit selected research facilities, and spend time at the Leon Lederman Educational Center.
• College credit can be earned through Aurora University which is associated with Fermilab. The cost is very reasonable ($60/hour in 2002).
• Participating teachers will receive a $300 per week stipend for each of the 3 weeks and a $250 allocation for instructional materials.
• The summer 2003 schedule will allow participants to spend three weeks studying at the beautiful Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville and, if added funds are available, at Fermilab in Chicago. The dates will span July 7 through July 23. In addition, there will be 3 days, to be announced, during the school year devoted to QuarkNet activities.
• An added feature of the summer 2003 QuarkNet program will be a variety of guest presentations by Vanderbilt researchers in a number of other fields, besides elementary particle physics, along with tours of their labs.

This is Vanderbilt's second year with QuarkNet. On average, each QuarkNet member institution will have twelve teachers in their program at this point, and there are currently twelve teachers who have already committed to Vanderbilt's 2003 QuarkNet program. However, we have been told by QuarkNet administration that "the more the merrier." Hence, if you are interested in joining, please contact us.

The teachers enrolled in the 2003 Vanderbilt QuarkNet program include:

• Six from Hume Fogg High School: Karen Boles, Cheryl Clayton, Rita Davis, John Hornaday, Linda Hyde (Lead Teacher) and John Wahl.
• Nick Horton of Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro
• Barbara Gilliam of Brick Church Middle School.
• Kim Hawtin, another middle school teacher in the Nashville Metro system.
• Three from Rutherford County: Gayle Boyd, Brenda Pless and Aimee Ragland.
• All the way from Eastern Kentucky, there is Haridas Chandran.

Three Vanderbilt physics professors served as QuarkNet Mentors during the 2002 summer program: Will Johns, Bob Panvini and Medford Webster. All three are likely to serve again as mentors in the summer of 2003 and there is a strong possibility that other professors will join.

Lead Teacher:
Linda Hyde (Hume Fogg High School) -- hyde1447@aol.com

and/or

Physicist Mentor:
Bob Panvini (Vanderbilt University) -- robert.s.panvini@vanderbilt.edu
Phone: (615) - 343 - 1780