We communicate our research results to the public through outreach
activities. We develop these activities through the QuarkNet program,
annual Johns Hopkins Physics Fair, Science Festivals, and collaboration
with the Maryland Science Center, as well as through hands-on
demonstrations of elementary particles on the university site.
There are exciting opportunities for graduate and undergraduate
students to work in collaboration with experts to create new exhibits
to communicate Particle Physics to the public. We also invite
teachers and students from schools in Baltimore area to participate
in these activities. Contact Prof. Gritsan and other
faculty members for further information.
Read an article
"
Hadron collisions reach out to people in Washington"
in CMS Times.
Johns Hopkins Physics Fair
The Johns Hopkins Physics Fair attracts several hundred visitors
from Baltimore area each Spring. We provide continuous physics
demonstrations, prepare science exhibits (see more on the Science
Festival exhibit below) and conduct competitions for local high
school students. This became a popular event on JHU campus and we
invite everybody to participate in the next
Physics Fair
in the Spring.
QuarkNet
The Johns Hopkins University is hosting a QuarkNet center,
where the high school teachers are involved in summer
research in particle physics. Here are examples of the
lectures given (usually in the morning) during the week courses
in August 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011:
Status of LHC and the Higgs search (2011)
Space-time (2010)
The Higgs Particle, or the Origin of Mass (2009)
What If the Particle World Were Different? (2008)
The Uncertainty Principle and the Quarks (2007)
Matter and Anti-Matter: What is the Matter with Them? (2006)
We also offer hands-on experience with the following table-top experiments
related to particles physics. One afternoon is usually enough to perform
an experiment (sometimes data could be collected overnight) and up to five
experiments could be performed in one week:
1. Muon lifetime
2. Photo-electric effect
3. Pulsed NMR
4. Franck-Hertz experiment
5. Nuclear spectroscopy
6. Rutherford scattering
7. Brownian motion
8. Hall effect
The Science and Engineering Festival and the Maryland Science Center
We have developed an
exhibit devoted to the Large Hadron Collider
which was shown on the Mall in Washington DC during the
Science and Engineering Festival in October 2010.
This exhibit highlights the
particle physics and the LHC results in particular.
This is a part of the bigger project which also involves
the Maryland Science Center collaboration.
The Maryland Science Center features a wide variety of hands-on
exhibits and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages.
Graduate and undergraduate students work with Prof. Gritsan
on exhibit development. Read more in the
CMS Times article.
Particle Physics Demonstrations
We have a hands-on demonstration of elementary particles in the
Cloud Chamber.
We also have an illustration with
an array of scintillator counters which would register
cosmic rays and would be integrated in the
US-wide array of cosmic counters located in the high schools.
