2007 - 2008 - 2009

Summer Student Research Teams: This summer we will host 2 research teams of 1 teacher and 4 students each. We want to cast a wider net to invite more students to apply. Applications are closed for summer 2009, but we plan to offer the program again in 2010.

Summer Workshop: We are holding a three-day workshop on Experiencing the Expanding Universe based on SDSS data. The workshop is full, but due to popularity, we may offer it again in subsequent years.

Masterclass: On February 21 approximately 45 students attended the all-day masterclass at Fermilab. Working with physicists Chris Stoughton, Fred Kuehn and Kendall Mahn, students analyzed 1,000 LEP events to confirm the Z-boson branching ratios. The day culminated in a "scientific conference" in Curia II. Congratulations to all the students and teachers who braved a VERY snowy and windy day to attend.

We have 11 teachers participating this year representing nine high schools from the Chicago suburbs, mostly west and north of the city but as far away as Joliet, IL. This is the 10th year that this center has participated in QuarkNet, and many of the teachers have been active since its inception.

We said good bye to mentor Jean Slaughter. Chris Stoughton, our new mentor, will assume the lead from Mike Syphers who has a busy calendar. Chris is with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Thanks to Jean for all her support and to Mike for his leadership. Welcome Chris.

Teacher's Guide - Download our collection of education materials including a variety of worksheets, activities, labs and lesson plans as well as modern physics units. The beta version was tested in authors classrooms.

2008 - As a result of last summer's successful student research program, this year's summer program participants once again teamed up with staff members of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to learn some astronomy and astrophysics, and to perform analyses of digital photographic images taken with the SDSS telescope in New Mexico. The team, made up of one teacher and four students, spent seven weeks at Fermilab analyzing galaxy clusters. The purpose of this project was to analyze the mass and radius of individual galaxies in a galaxy cluster using weak lensing analysis. To begin, the redshifts of the individual galaxies in a cluster were collected. The red-shift is found using the Bright Central Galaxy (BCG) in the SDSS data (Data Release 6 - DR6). Redshift is a measure of the "shift" of waves toward the red end of the spectrum. It occurs when the source of the waves is moving away from observer, just like Doppler Effect. It is used for measuring distances.

Initially to compare the results, the data in the Girardi catalogue were collected independently from DR6 of SDSS. The resulting graph of Girardi Redshift vs. SDSS Redshift was compiled. The project also compiled the results of the individual mass vs. Girardi Masses, and Mass/Radius ratio vs. Girardi Mass/Radius ratio. After the results were found to be acceptable, the process was used to analyze clusters in the Abell Catalogue. The results from this project are still pending as the project is ongoing and expected to be completed later in the year. Jim Annis was the mentor for the summer research project.

All teachers met for two days to learn about masterclasses. During the upcoming academic year the teachers are planning to concentrate on participation in Masterclass 2009. Three meetings, one day each, are to be held in October, November, and January to learn some particle physics and prepare for Masterclass 2009 in February or early March. A fifth and final meeting for the year will be held approximately two weeks later to discuss the masterclass and to make future plans.

2007 - Under the guidance of physics teacher Vandana Thakur, a team of four high school students spent seven weeks working with images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The objects they were concerned with were interacting galaxies, which can be either colliding or merging. 44,250 images had to be inspected visually and classified as two galaxies, two stars, one star and one galaxy, one galaxy, or three or more galaxies. After the data had been examined a fifth and final time, there were only 20,349 true isolated galaxy pairs, about 46% of the original number. With the help of their mentor, Sahar Allam, the four students used the Java program TOPCAT to create graphs in order to analyze and visually represent their results. One of the most noteworthy diagrams is a 3D map which plotted about 4,500 of the merging galaxies in relation to earth by using spectroscopic redshift data from the SDSS.

Mentors: Mike Syphers, Jean Slaughter