Summer Workshop 2019
July 8, 2019 - July 12, 2019
The UIC summer workshop (July 8-12, 2019) was attended by three teachers and seven students and hosted at New Trier High School. Research groups with participants mixed from five high schools carried out two separate studies: the speed of muons and the rate of multple muons in cosmic ray air showers. For the shower study two detectors were configured in nested tetrahedrons and the Shower e-Lab tool was used to correlate the detectors in time. In each detector three counters were configured horizontally in an equilateral triangle to study rates versus separation distance with the fourth detector completing a pyramid. Participants measured the rate of single versus multiple muons at two different sized pyramids. Using relative timing and positions of the scintillators, a mechanical model was used to recontruct the direction of showers that contained at least three muons. Data was well documented and will be available for study by other Centers in the future.
The Fermilab industrial campus was toured midweek where participants learned about the superconducting magnet facility. The D0 experiemnt was also toured and the Standard Model discussed. Students used the rolling with Rutherford activity to estimate the size of scattering objects, improving their results with several levels of correction factors.