Introducing an Innovative Approach of Teaching the Standard Model of Particle Physics at High School

Transcription

1 Introducing an Innovative Approach of Teaching the Standard Model of Particle Physics at High School Philipp Lindenau, Michael Kobel GIREP-MPTL

2 Contents of the talk What is Netzwerk Teilchenwelt? Forschung trifft Schule (Science meets school) in-service teacher training courses Goals and key ideas of the teaching concept Received feedback and evaluation 2

3 Netzwerk Teilchenwelt Network of scientists, students and teachers with direct contact to CERN Taking current research in particle physics, real data and even experiments into classrooms Research, knowledge transfer and recruitment from a single source Locations all over Germany Altogether 30 institutes Administration: TU Dresden Has existed since 2010 Since 02/2017 the outreach project of the 4 big experiments at the LHC at CERN (ATLAS, CMS, ALICE LHCb) 3

4 Why in-service training in particle physics? Particle physics included in German curricula to very variable extent e.g. in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to a very high extend including the concept of messenger particles Intense media attention within recent years Interesting-sounding terms like dark matter or anti-matter Keen interest of students But: Very little experience on the part of teachers Existing teaching material in different quality and not consistent in terminology 5

5 Forschung trifft Schule (Science meets school) In-service teacher education programme in cooperation with the Dr. Hans Riegel- Stiftung Different formats Base programme (2 days) Multiplier school (3 days) CERN-Summerschool (6 days) Contents of the base programme The Standard Model of particle physics Astroparticle physics Research methods Existing teaching material on these topics 6

6 Basis for the training Teaching material developed by Netzerk Teilchenwelt in cooperation with the Joachim Herz Stiftung and teachers ( ) Modular collection (4 Vol.) Complementary digital or printed versions So far no English translation available Translation of the volume on the theoretical background of the Standard Model including didactic and methodical advise planned Outline of the concept included in EDULEARN17 Proceedings 7

7 Goals of the approach Teaching particle physics in an cumulative way by finding suitable points of contact with the rest of the curriculum (mainly nuclear physics and electromagnetism) and analogies Extending the concept of charge for the description of particle interactions Introducing the weak and the strong charge (also color charge) for the weak and the strong interaction Enabling students to participate in discussions on the matter and distinguish scientific facts from pure science fiction 10

8 How to A soccer analogy How to explain something completely unknown to somebody? For example, soccer... You would probably start with the most important rules of the game and not with number of players and their positions/roles on the field or even the names of players of a certain team. players = elementary particles rules = interactions, conservation laws,... 13

9 How to A soccer analogy Why start the introduction of the SM with this picture? For explaining all stable matter only upquarks (u), down-quarks (d) and electrons (e) are necessary. Why exactly these particles exist is not predictable and understood. The SM is a theory of particle interactions. u d c s t b g g H n e n m n t Z e m t W 14

10 The three basic concepts of the SM Charges Elementary particles underlie influence Interactions 15

11 Example of consistent terminology: Interactions Includes 4 phenomena: Force (vector) Conversion of particles Production of matter and anti matter Annihilation of matter and anti matter (e.g. Coulomb force) (e.g. beta conversion) (e.g. Electron + Positron) (e.g. PET: 2 Photons) Terms interaction and force have to be distinguisehd carefully. Force is just one aspect/possibility of interaction. Term force is only to be used where indeed repulsion or attraction is meant. 16

12 Reach of the forces Infinite: noticable in daily life Finite: only subatomic Force Gravitational Electromagnetic Strong Weak Reach Infinite Infinite m m 17

13 Problems with the field line model Unusual field lines for interactions with force laws that deviate from ~1/r² at some point Strong force Becomes constant field line density constant Field lines emerge spontaneously Weak force Diminishes very quickly Field lines coming to nothing 18

14 New model: messenger particles Interactions are mediated by particles. Properties of these particles define properties of the interaction. 19

15 Visualizing particle interactions Many problems with classic pictures to describe quantum processes 20

16 Example of spiral approach - Feynman diagrams Beta minus conversion with black box 21

17 Example of spiral approach - Feynman diagrams Beta minus conversion 22

18 Evaluation of the training Questionnaire after the training Altogether 148 participants in 2017 Rating their agreement with statements on a five-level Lickert scale Further open questions and oral feedback Response very positive 23

19 The training topic is highly relevant for my work at school Not true 5% No answer 6% Rather not true 5% True 37% Partly true 18% Rather true 29% 24

20 After the training I feel capable of teaching particle physics. Not true 5% No answer 5% Rather not true 5% True 35% Partly true 20% Rather true 30% 25

21 PROJEKTLEITUNG Thank you for your attention! PARTNER SCHIRMHERRSCHAFT FÖRDERER

22 Particle Physics Masterclasses One-day programme at school Analysis of ATLAS-data > 100 Masterclasses per year Astro Particle Projects Scintillator experiments Astro Particle Masterclasses Cloud chamber sets 28

23 The strong charge Quarks possess a strong charge (also: color charge ) Protons and neutrons are built of quarks Charge with vectorial character: color grid 29

24 The strong charge Color charge vectors of quarks 30

25 Acknowledgements Thanks to the other authors of Ladungen, Wechselwirkungen und Teilchen. Prof. Michael Kobel (TU Dresden) Dr. Uta Bilow (TU Dresden) Dr. Bernadette Schorn (now RWTH Aachen) all the teachers who gave feedback and helped to improve the quality of the final publication. 31

26 The contents of the training were new to me. Rather not true 6% Not true 4% No answer 4% Partly true 10% Rather true 14% True 62% 32