A QuarkNet Leadership Workshop
for High School Teachers and Their Students July 7 -17, 2009
The BCCP Global Teacher Academy and the Berkeley Lab Physics Division's QuarkNet program hosted 7 QuarkNet teachers, 21 high school students, and 5 Cal Teach undergraduate students at the 2009 workshop. The 10 day program was an intensive, technology-rich teaching and learning experience focused on cosmology. Each day began with a lecture by a BCCP or LBNL physicist on topics including: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, particle physics, and nuclear science. Current research in these fields was also discussed. Activities, lessons, and student presentations were filmed and are posted throughout the site.
BCCP Teacher Academy Director Rollie Otto led a tour of The Advanced Light Source, a division of Berkeley Lab.
What: A workshop for teaching and learning modern physics by exploring the big questions in Cosmology
Who: High school physics teachers and their students
Where: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
When: Summer 2009 (July 7-17)
"I have been going to engineering/scientific seminars/workshops here and in Europe for more than 30 years...the Cosmology workshop over the summer was simply fabulous. I consider myself and the students who attended exceptionally lucky. We received a rare gift - we learned about the latest happenings in physics directly from the people doing the work. It has become my gold standard for workshops! I doubt that one could top that event, but I would like to encourage people to try." Dick Damien, Physics Teacher, Washington High School, San Francisco
Scientists present the current scientific view of the history and structure of the universe
Students and teachers learned how scientists seek answers to the “big questions” in cosmology and related “big questions” in particle physics
Teachers shared lessons for teaching foundational concepts in the high school and introductory college physics and astronomy curriculum linked to cosmology
Related “Big Questions” researched at the Large Hadron Collider: How did our universe come to be the way it is? What kind of Universe do we live in? What happened in the Big Bang? Where is the antimatter? Why do particles have mass? What is our Universe made of?
A 10 day workshop for 10 teams of high school physics teachers and their students. Each team consists of one teacher and 3 to 6 students.
10 days include talks and presentations by scientists.
Teachers participate as learners along with the students in the morning lectures and presentations and share the teaching of hands-on lessons in late mornings and afternoons. Teachers facilitate student learning and present model physics lessons.
Student participants are the primary audience for all content and instruction.
Location
Perseverance Hall, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Personnel
Lead Organizers: Stu Loken, George Smoot, Rollie Otto
Workshop media development: Rosemary Nocera
Targeted Teachers
Participants in 2007-2008 Cosmology Workshops (QuarkNet Teachers)
Bay Area QuarkNet Teachers
Potential International Partners
Student Recruitment:
Participating teachers have first opportunity to select 2 to 3 students from their classes
An Expanding Universe: My Experience with the 2008 Cosmology Workshop "In one’s education, there are always one or two learning experiences that change one’s outlook on life forever...After completing he 2008 Physics in and through Cosmology Workshop, I feel it fully deserves the title educational milestone." Read more from Serena
