An educational project exploring the Standard Model of Microcosm

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One of the reasons scientific education has lost ground is that the teaching in these subjects has not been renewed at a sufficient pace. What is taught at school is very often far from the research front. The project that we have worked out aims to increase the interest in and understanding of modern science, particularly particle physics. One of the main components is a multimedia program about the Standard Model of Microcosm combined with more traditional teaching methods like seminars and problem-solving sessions. Another important component is the images of particle collisions at the Large Electron Positron collider at CERN [1] outside Geneva. The heavy Z° particle is produced in high energy collisions between an electron and its antiparticle, the positron. The Z° is one of the mediators of the so-called weak force, acting at very short distances in the interior of matter. The project aims at studying the production and decay of this particle and learning about the most fundamental parts of the interior of matter. The multimedia Standard Model program We have produced a multimedia program enabling the user to explore the Standard Model of modern particle physics. The user learns about the inner structure of matter, the fundamental forces in nature as well as the tools used by particle physicists. The program is a journey, controlled by the user, through a tree structure which becomes more advanced by depth, starting out on the most elementary level. Questions and answers test and verify the user's knowledge before and after running the Standard Model of Microcosm (SMM) program. Computing tools The general layout and tree structure of SMM was created with AuthorwareTM Professional [2], a flow-chart oriented programming tool, using icons for various functions. It requires 2.3 Mb RAM and 10 Mb disk space. The SMM Authorware skeleton requires 4 Mb RAM and 6 Mb disk space. SMM is a tree structure of 115 screens. An example of a screen is shown in detail in figure 1. Several movie sequences and sound files are included in SMM. The movies demonstrate the experimental exploration of the interior of matter and the theoretical description of the processes. Figure 1. Strata Studio ProTM [3] was used to create graphics images and Quicktime movies. Studio Pro is an object-oriented graphics tool for three-dimensional effects. It requires 5 Mb RAM and the files that we created are usually 200--700 kb large. To create a graphics image, a wire frame model of the object is created. Shapes, colours and textures can be chosen by the user. When the wire frame model is finished, a rendering is called to produce the final image. We mainly used the so-called Gouraud shading to obtain three-dimensional effects without casting shadows. The most commonly used rendering technique is ray-tracing, but we wanted to avoid shadows from objects like the particles in the interior of matter. We used Studio Pro to create all the movies. The movies occupy a total of 6 Mb of disk space. Versions of SMM exist for both Macintosh and PC. It requires 13 Mb of disk space and 4 Mb memory including 370 kb fonts, a 16 kb Quicktime player and a 430 kb RunAPM. There is a small demo version available on the Internet [4]. A smaller, less detailed version of SMM is available on a 1.44 Mb diskette. This version is also available on the Internet [5]. A MacIntosh or a PC and the ShockwaveTM plugin are needed to explore this version of SMM. Exploration of high energy particle collisions At the Department of Physics (Fysikum), Stockholm University, we have been engaged in establishing a Science Laboratory aimed at 15 - 18 year-old students. This laboratory focuses on modern experimental set-ups which illustrate basic physical principles. However, the Science Laboratory also acts as an umbrella organization for various outreaching activities. In several of these, the Standard Model program package has proven to be very useful. The first project used the Standard Model multimedia program and images of particle interactions registered by DELPHI [6]. DELPHI is an international particle physics experiment at CERN. This modern physics experiment, with which the innermost building blocks of matter are explored, was introduced to 17 year-old students at Blackeberg Gymnasium in Stockholm. The project work took place both at the school and at Fysikum. Approximately 20 hours were devoted to this study of quarks and leptons during a two-month period. More details can be found at the Internet addresses below. L Bergström, K E Johansson and T G M Malmgren References on the Internet [1] http://www.cern.ch/ [2] http://www.macromedia.com/software/authorware [3] http://www.strata3d.com/html/strata_studiopro.html [4] http://www.physto.se/~tordm/stdmod/stdmod.html [5] http://www.physto.se/~tordm/poster.html [6] http://www.cern.ch/Delphi/Welcome.html [7] http://vanh.physto.se/~hoc