Members of the High Energy groups at Indiana University are very active in outreach activities that include:
- Science Demonstrations and Talks at local area elementary, middle and high schools
- Advanced College Project
- Sigma Xi
- Annual Physics Department Open House
- QuarkNet
- WonderLab
Advance College Project
Alex Dzierba and Adam Szczepaniak are the past and current physics liaisons for the Advance College Project. They work with Indiana high school physics teachers in setting up calculus-based physics taught at the high school for IU credit. This involves bringing high school teachers to the IU campus for seminars, writing exams and certifying the curriculum. Alex, and now Adam, visit high schools as well to meet with teachers and their students. A number of these teachers and students in ACP Physics now participate in QuarkNet.
Sigma Xi
Alex Dzierba and Adam Szczepaniak are the past and current presidents of the Indiana University Chapter of Sigma Xi, the international honor society of engineering and scientific research. Alex and Adam introduced Sigma Xi sponsorship of the annual STARS symposium (including cash awards) and have enhanced the programs recognizing excellent undergraduate research and excellent high school science teaching.
Open House
Every year, in Fall, the physics department runs the Physics Department Open House which brings over 1000 teachers and students from elementary, middle and high schools. Hands on demonstrations fill the building and the grounds outside the building. Faculty, staff and students of the high energy physics group are active participants in this yearly event.
QuarkNet
QuarkNet (http://quarknet.fnal.gov/) seeks to bring high school teachers and their students to the forefront of 21st century research. QuarkNet centers are connected to experiments running at or planned for CERN, Fermilab and SLAC. One such center is at Indiana University (http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~quarknet/). During the last three summers institutes were held on the Bloomington campus attended by teachers and their students. During the last institute participants built and tested cosmic ray telescopes for use at the high schools.
WonderLab
WonderLab is a private, nonprofit organization begun in 1995 as an outreach program by a small band of dedicated volunteers operating a children's science and technology museum out of interim locations. In March 2003, a new two-story, $1.7 million building, with 15,000 square feet of interior space was opened in Bloomington, IN. As part of this outreach effort, Profs. Van Kooten and Olmer collaborated in a successful grant from NASA through their "Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science (IDEAS)" program to design and fabricate a cosmic ray exhibit called "Cosmic Dance" in the museum. The goal of the exhibit is to promote public understanding of cosmic rays and their role in the universe.
The Indiana University (IU) Chapter of the Society of Physics and Astronomy students, a group of undergraduate students, first worked on prototyping a first module. Two Marsh White awards of $150 each from the American Physical Society for the promotion of student projects for public outreach efforts were awarded towards the initial exploratory phases of the project and evaluation of different photodetectors. The Hamamatsu company generously donated the multi-anode photomultiplier tube that serves all the modules of the exhibit. During Summer 2002 and throughout the 2002-2003 academic year, undergraduate physics majors Parker Wittman and Pam Young, under Prof. Van Kooten's supervision, designed, fabricated, and installed the exhibit. It is composed of five two-foot square translucent panels set flush to the floor. Whenever a cosmic ray passes through one of the panels, and then through two scintillator slabs in a pit below each panel, scintillation light is detected by the photomultiplier and signals in coincidence result in activation of lamps underneath the panel. Museum visitors standing on one of the panels when it flashes have the experience of knowing that there was a good chance of a cosmic ray particle actually passing through their body before activating the detection equipment below. Signage on the adjacent wall explains cosmic rays, their origins, and interactions with the earth's atmosphere.