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Developed to introduce high school students to the importance of basic research, participants
from NIU’s QuarkNet Summer Institute engaged in hands-on experimentation involving high-energy
physics, learned about the Higgs boson and toured Fermilab National Laboratory in Batavia.
This is a cosmic ray experiment that they’ve been working on. They have cosmic rays and
muon detectors. So cosmic rays that come from outer space they detect, and they can do all
kinds of stuff – life of a muon, speed of a muon, that kind of thing. But all this information
gets uploaded to Fermilab and so then other people can access the information and people
all over the world can use other people’s information and do comparisons between here
and where other people may be. They’re having fun looking at these things that you can’t
see with your eyes, but with the equipment provided to them, they basically can “see”
these invisible particles. The relevance is not limited to basic research that this kind
of research finds. Very wide application and fields ranging from medical physics, medical
applications, power generation and storage, information technology, even financial markets
– you name it. It is important for them to get to know it because it is the frontier
of physics, it’s where things are going now. So if students really want a field in
physics this is a good place to go and it gives them a good introduction, good background
to see what’s out there and to see what they could possibly do. One thing I loved
about this was not just the experimentation, but also the talks that we got. We covered
more of the Higgs boson, we did cover a bit of theory of what the Higgs boson was, they
also covered really well the standard model and future physics. I learned a lot about
the particles I didn’t know about before. I didn’t know about the standard model at
all. I learned a lot about quarks, electrons, Higgs boson. I learned a lot! It’s given
me a chance to learn stuff that I really did not know before and to get more in depth and
involved in it and then to pass those kinds of things onto my students. It’s really
fun, it’s really a good adventure for kids and I’ve learned a lot and I get an opportunity
to meet with particle physicists. I’ve worked with people at Fermi-lab, I’ve gotten to
spend some time at CERN. I learn a lot and it’s really just a lot of fun. I hope they
take something out of this. An experience like this helps them find better opportunities,
looks good on their resume, and hopefully serves them well.