QuarkNet participates in President's "Educate to Innovate"
QuarkNet, a national program of education and outreach in particle physics supported by the DOE and NSF, is participating in the President’s campaign, Educate to Innovate by leading a cosmic ray shower study at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) on the National mall in Washington, DC on National Lab Day, May 5, 2010. Four teams of teachers and high school students from Illinois, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia, in collaboration with particle physicists and QuarkNet staff from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Notre Dame, will set up and operate cosmic ray detector telescopes on the main floor of the NASM to show the general public how high school students participate directly in collaborative research science.
Detector installation and check-out began on the morning of May 4 through midday May 5. Students will use an online and interactive scientific and education research resource: the Cosmic Ray e-Lab to upload and analyze data, and create posters to share their work with visitors to the museum and with student colleagues participating at the same time at high school sites around the U.S.
QuarkNet is well positioned to be an exemplary participant in President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign, designed to promote longer-term efforts that support science and mathematics education. Educate to Innovate "includes efforts from the Federal Government and from companies, foundations, nonprofits, and science and engineering societies to work with young people across American to excel in science and math." While the initiative focuses on activities outside the classroom, it culminates in National Lab Day when volunteers work with students directly in their classrooms and elsewhere.