WALTA/Quarknet Summer 2001 Workshop

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR PARTICIPANTS
AGENDA AND PARTICIPANT LIST
MAPS AND DRIVING INFORMATION

For information about a very similar workshop we just conducted for teachers in Colorado, please see SALTA

For an introduction to WALTA, please see the following web pages:

Summer workshop for students and teachers

This workshop is made possible by support from Quarknet, an outreach program of Fermi National Laboratory, and the UW Department of Physics. Special thanks are due to Dr. Tom Jordan (FNAL), and Profs. David Boulware and Toby Burnett (UW).

Submit the Application Form if you would like to participate in the workshop. Space is limited. Applicants will be notified by 15 May, 2001.

The WALTA group at the University of Washington Department of Physics will offer a workshop during the week of July 30 through August 4, 2001, to introduce teachers from Seattle-area high schools to the WALTA project and get them started on preparing detector equipment for later installation at their own schools. There is no tuition or fee required for workshop attendance, but space is limited to a total of 15 participants. We anticipate holding additional introductory workshops later, so please be patient if you are unable to attend this summer.

Generally, each day of the workshop will include lectures and discussions in the morning, and hands-on activities in the afternoon. Discussion topics to be covered will include:

What are cosmic rays, and where do they come from?
Why do ultra-high energy cosmic rays present a special challenge to the Standard Model?
How are cosmic rays detected and studied?
How does WALTA work?
How can our school participate in WALTA?
How can we connect WALTA research to our school's physics classes and/or science club activites, and to state learning standards?

Hands-on activities will include:

Learning to use an oscilloscope for observation of fast (nanosec) electrical pulses
Learning to operate and evaluate photomultiplier tubes
Learning to disassemble and refurbish scintillation counter modules
Learning to set up coincidence logic to make a cosmic ray "telescope"
Learning to statistically analyze data

All equipment and materials will be provided for the workshop, Participating teachers will be able to take some equipment and materials back to their schools. We will be able to set up 2 schools with equipment available now, and other participating schools will be have detector stations set up when WALTA acquires the necessary hardware.

We will soon post a form allowing teachers to submit an application for participation in the WALTA Workshop. Please check this website again soon!

R. Jeffrey Wilkes, University of Washington