A group of high school teachers and students will arrive on campus today for a weeklong study that promises to be out of this world.
The Department of Physics is hosting the Institute for Teachers and Students Studying Cosmic Rays. The 10 to 15 participants are associated with a QuarkNet center run jointly by NIU and Argonne National Laboratory. The objective is to infuse cutting-edge science into high school curriculums.
Funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, QuarkNet is a professional teacher development program.
It boasts a nationwide network of 60 centers at top universities and national laboratories across the country. Argonne has been a center for many years, with NIU joining forces this year to strengthen and expand the program to areas farther west of Chicago. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago are among other centers in the region.
QuarkNet seeks to involve high-school teachers and their students in cutting-edge research on the structure of matter and the fundamental forces of nature. During the summer, scientists work with teachers on physics projects that will later be introduced in high school classrooms.
NIU and Argonne scientists will provide background information to teachers and students on the study of elementary particles and cosmic rays, and participants will build cosmic ray detectors for use in their classrooms next fall.
Teachers attending the NIU institute are:
“Modern physics and elementary particles are not usual topics for high school physics classes, so this is a good way to expose students to the research being done in these disciplines and get them involved in doing research themselves,” NIU Science Outreach Coordinator Pati Sievert said.
“We asked the teachers to bring students who will be in their physics classes next fall so the students can mentor their classmates when they begin working with cosmic ray detectors,” she added.
Professor Dhiman Chakraborty in the NIU Department of Physics is the driving force behind NIU’s involvement in the QuarkNet program. He and Robert Wagner of Argonne are also program mentors. Both will be among the presenters this week, delivering talks on the physics of elementary particles and its connection to cosmology
Professor Michael Fortner of NIU and Steve Kuhlmann of Argonne also will deliver lectures on experimental techniques and ongoing international projects in these areas.
The talks are intended to give the teachers and students enough background information to understand how the detectors work, to get a glimpse of why scientists are interested in elementary particles and cosmic rays, and to design experiments using the cosmic ray detectors.
Participants will assemble the detectors during the week and also will have access to two detectors on loan from other schools in the Argonne QuarkNet group. By week’s end, they will already be gathering data.
Gary D. Glenn, a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at NIU, was sworn last month at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., to serve on the National Council for the Humanities.
The council is as an advisory board to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Glenn’s nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
A resident of DeKalb, Glenn has taught a wide array of political science courses over more than four decades at NIU, where he earned a reputation for being among the university’s top teachers. He was recipient of the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Great Professor Award bestowed by the Honors Program and a Presidential Teaching Professorship, the university’s top recognition for excellence in the classroom.
While Glenn retired last year, he continues teaching and working with students, especially on theses and dissertations.
An independent federal agency, the NEH promotes excellence in the humanities and is charged with conveying the lessons of history to all Americans. The National Council on the Humanities consists of 26 distinguished private citizens who advise the NEH chairman. Board members serve staggered 6-year terms.
Glenn’s post will require reading through and providing recommendations on numerous NEH grant applications. Council members, who typically meet quarterly in Washington, D.C., also provide recommendations on matters of policy.
Arlene Lennox, a medical physicist who recently retired as technical director of the NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab, died of metastatic breast cancer Saturday, May 24, in her home in Elburn. She was 65.
Construction crews will continue working to install chilled water lines beneath Normal Road this week, with work mostly in the area Swen Parson Hall and Adams Hall.
Work on the project will continue throughout the summer. Normal Road is expected to remain closed until Aug. 1. Parking Lot 10, where construction materials are being staged, will remain closed.
Also, beginning this week, the northeast quadrant of Lot 5 (at the Campus Life Building) will closed for staging of materials for the project. To offset the loss of parking spaces (about 65 in all) Campus Parking Services will allow blue permit parking in Lot D (west of Neptune Hall) until Aug. 15. For more information, contact Campus Parking Services at (815) 753-1045.
Pedestrian crossings will be maintained throughout the project, though the location of crosswalks might change periodically.
Caution is urged when walking or driving around any of the construction work due to heavy equipment and truck traffic. Work is scheduled between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Ben Dewey, laboratory manager in the Department of Physics, is retiring at the end of the month after 17 years of service to NIU.
A celebration is planned from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday, June 30, in Faraday West 300.
Paul Gill, a graduate student in physics, will present “Exploring the Unknowns in Our Reality” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 10. The free lecture takes place in Room 200 of Faraday West.
Gill will present several current puzzles in science, from the world of quantum physics to string theory, anti matter to dark matter, black holes to bending time and parallel worlds to hidden dimensions. An expertise or background in science is not required to enjoy the discussion and exploration of these topics.
Gill has taught science classes and given lectures at Harper College and the College of DuPage over the past four years.
NIU’s Alumni Association will thank NIU faculty and staff for their support and dedication to the university by offering two-for-one pricing for two upcoming Chicago White Sox games Friday, June 13, or Tuesday, July 1.
Join the Alumni Association in a private suite featuring indoor and outdoor open seating and continuous buffet and bar starting at 6 p.m. through the seventh inning stretch. Packages cost $125 and include two game tickets, all food and beverages and a wonderful atmosphere. Join us on Friday, June 13 or Tuesday, July 1 for an exciting baseball reception.
Call (815) 753-1452 to order.
Discover Dalmatia’s ruggedly beautiful, island-dominated shoreline on this touring itinerary which takes travelers from Dubrovnik in southern most Croatia to Ljubljana, the beautiful capital city in Slovenia.
The trip begins Sept. 19.
The Dalmatian Coast offers an unmatched collection of Roman ruins, medieval towns, gorgeous rivieras, picturesque lakes, mountain views and idyllic islands. Visitors step back in time at beautiful Dubrovnik, an architectural gem that is more than 1,000 years old.
More information about this and other NIU Alumni Association Travel Programs is available online.
Portions of the campus parking deck will be closed through June 15 for maintenance.
During this time, crews will clean, seal and stripe the pavement in the parking deck. At any given time during this period, two levels will be closed while three will remain open for parking.
There is a possibility that the entire parking deck will close on the weekends of June 6 through June 8 and June 13 through June 15 to ensure that striping is completed and dried by the start of summer classes.