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Planning for the4. International Masterclasses“Hands on Particle Physics“

28.2.-14.3.2008 (?) http://www.physicsmasterclasses.org

EPPOG outreach meeting, CERN, 4.10.2007

Michael Kobel

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Outline

BasicsParticipation

Organisation Team

Evaluation

NeedsPersonnel

Material and In-Kind

AmendmentsCollected Comments

Exercises

Video Session

Organisation

Next Steps

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Basics I: Participation 2007 (2006)

74 (59) institutes from 20 (18) countriescountries

new: South Africa and re-joined: Finland

Interest for 2008: Brasil, France

14 new institutes (not counting re-joiners) CH: Bern

DE: Göttingen, Wuppertal, Erlangen, Freiburg,

GR: Crete

SA: Witwatersrand

UK: QM-London, Bristol, Manchester

US: Baltimore, Tallahassee, Cincinnati, Notre Dame

16 (8) institutes w/ more than one student day

6 (5) institutes w/ additional teacher´s day

Estimated number of students: 4589 (3135)

HUGE SUCCESS and WORLDWIDE INTEREST

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Central organisationPeople and infrastructure at Dresden

Michael Kobel (needs more support!)Gisela Fischer (ATLAS/BABAR group secretary) retiredsuccessor (> 12/07 or 01/08) largely with other tasks Felix Krüger (physics student) CD and Web Site

EVO Video Conferencetechnics:

Joao Fernandez, Viktor Michalcin, Marek Domarackyplus EVObeta team (CERN, Caltech, VK Slovakia)

moderators:Silvia Schuh, Dave Barney, Mike Lamont, Salvatore Mele

Quiz: Silvia Schuh, Ken Cecire et al

National Organisationcontact persons in each country

esp. big support in US by Quarknet (Ken)

Local responsibles for each institute

Basics II: Organisation Team 2007continuing .vs. ending

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Basics III: EvaluationImportant, esp. for new concepts and exercises

So far:Tedious work, typing in all answers into SPSS by hand

2005: M.K. and Erik, with help from IPNjust published in Physics Education

2007 (and 2006?): two groups (last EPPOG meeting)Slovak Virtual Collab (esp. Kosice, Presov, Zilina)

Quarknet (Ken et al)

Plans for 2008 and beyond (proposal):Charge professionial survey group at TU Dresden with

making questionaire machine-readable

Reading data into SPSS

Making pre-defined set of standard plots

Sending SPSS data to us for further/deeper evaluation

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Conclusion for „Basics“

We can be happy that most people continueCERN IT stresses: no increase of person power or time

Central Organization was overloaded in 2007

We are at (have passed?) the limit ofperson power, i.e. work / (time*person)

Developing or trying new or amended concepts?So far no resources (people and funding)

Conclusion:Long-term structure desperately needed w.r.t.

People

Funding

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Needs I: central personnel

Long-Term vision:Get lasting (EU?) funding for many (> 5?) years incl. *enough* personnel

Medium-Term planFind a ½ - time person for next (3?) years

Help in most of central organization tasks

Integrate new concepts and exercises (e.g. s, LHC)

Prepare and organize long-term funding applications

Status: Striving for finding such a person together with DESY

Short-Term success (TU Dresden)

Got 1/3 – time Ph.D. student (Peter Steinbach) for 6 monthsHelp in most of central organization tasks

Test new concepts and exercises (e.g. s, LHC)

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Needs II: material and in-kind funding So far (often in-kind):

Distributed material (CD, brochures, comics, card games)2005: EPS-HEPP(CDs) + CERN(comics) + DESY(brochures)2006: BMBF(CDs) + CERN(prizes) + DESY(brochures)2007: EPS-HEPP(CDs) + CERN(prizes) + DESY(brochures)

VRVS/EVO support (continuing!)2005-2007 CERN + Caltech + Slovak ministry

Amounts: CD-production and shipping: ~6000 Euro /year

Future automatic evaluation: ~4000 Euro / year

Short- and medium-term prospects EPS-HEPP (via Erik): Continuing? (at their limit, barely enough for CDs)

Germany: Chances for some money from 4-year BMBF „Awareness of CERN“ program (application pending)

Is there a chance via US DOE/NSF Outreach ??? (rehearsal October 07)

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Conclusion and Items for “Needs”

Do we agree on Needs?

Personell (Organisation, Web, CD, exercise development, …)

Material (CDs, Brochures, …)

In-Kind (prizes, EVO support, evaluation, …)

Short-, Medium-, Long-Term Plan?

Other Ideas for funding Sources?Short-Term 2008

Long-Term (to be done by medium-term person)

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Amendments I: Collected Comments

“Brainstorming Meeting” at CERN, 17.7.2007Participants

Coordinators: M.K., Erik, Ken (via EVO)

Moderators: Dave, Silvia, Mike

EVO: Joao, Marek

France: Alain, Didier

Comments collected beforehand (Dave)Exercises (Z + 2nd exercise, LHC?, other?)

Video Session (earlier time, tech quality, aim, collection of results, Questions&Answers)

National masterclass days

Information flow

No comments onTeacher involvement

CD

my conclusions and suggestions

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Amendments II: Exercises 2008

General comments on *mandatory* exercises*easy* counting exercises needed2nd mandatory exercise good for some sites

must be possible to cover in video conf Should ideally build on 1st exercise

Transition LEP LHC needed on medium-term Candidate for LHC exercise

ASEC (ATLAS Student Event Challenge, Athens)http://asec.phy.bg.ac.yu/Judged to be not on high-school level

Let’s have (2?-)4 trial days for 2nd exercisess from 2jets/3jets in DELPHI data (easier than OPAL)BR(W+W-) in OPAL data (easier than DELPHI)

Let’s have 0(-1?) trial day for ASEC as 1st exerciseCan we “simplify” ASEC exercises already for 2008?Volunteers?

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Amendments IIIa: Video Session

General comments:Video Session Central connecting element!Great for students if technically working and lively

Question of timeGenerally stay at usual time (16:30-18:00 CET)Make very few special days

Max 2 days: 15:30-17:00 CET (8:30 – 10:00 FNAL)Max 1 day: 22:30-24:00 CET (15:30 – 17:00 FNAL)

Technical QualityStrict admission procedure after successful testwith final equipment at final place More thoroughly prepared test sessions,planned well in advanceAssure two screens at most places(summary sheet + video conf)Test bandwidth and audio with several sites in parallel

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Amendments IIIb: Video Session

Content Collect results beforehand(at least for days with >~ 5 sites)

Locally prepare questions for Q&A at each sitePrize for most funny / mind-boggling / difficult question?

discussion topicsBetter adjustment of items for local vs central discussion?

Ask students for summary of local discussion?

More central discussion on statistics issues?

Discussion of one special / questionable event display?

Initiate student-to-student discussion?

local language video confs on “national days”Only in exceptional cases (1 French day in first year?)

students should learn that English is lingua franca

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Amendments IV: Organisation

Continue and expand teacher’s daysIdeally before or parallel w/ students

Same exercises, discussion among teachers

support preparation and wrap-up at school

Aim to initiate development of teaching material

Might be important for long-term funding

Improve Information flow (aller-retour)Mails? Hypernews? Wiki? all?

Mailing list w/ subscription?

Web forms?

How to make return from institutes more efficient?

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Next Steps

Today:

Agree on date: Th 28.2. - Fr 14.3.2008 ?Agree on suggestions above

Next week(s)Get process going for next year

Peter Steinbach: starting 1.11.Fix schedule begin of November with

– Special exercise days– Special teacher’s days– Special video time day(s)

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Backup slides from last meeting

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J´avais des HAUTs , j´avais des BAS

Making of… schedule worked out well, faster than 2006 (not easy to distribute74 institutes evenly, very cooperative )

Web pages of new institutes: again a nightmare (with few exceptions)still: nice and useful to have them on Web and CDrom !

Distribution of CDs and DESY brochures (too few…) Thanks to CD company (CUE) and Veronika Werschner (DESY) ready and shipped well in time only few delivery problems, solved in time

Communications to (some) institutes(„… as already explained in my previous emails and on the Web...“) need shorter (and thus even more?) e-mails, Wiki?, both?, ….

Distribution of DELPHI and OPAL over the days: fineEverybody knew, what to measure and to report in EVO Conf.

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Bad Technical preparation of EVO *in quite some institutes*Good technical quality of EVO hidden by lack of local preparation(maybe the 1st EVO test was announced on too short notice?)Most Frequent flaws:

Equipment not tested in relevant environment

No echo cancelling devices used

Problems with H323 and EVO (at least in the beginning)

All this made some video conferences *really* bad!

Clear consequence for 2008:

Need *very* strict admission procedure to Video Conf

Video Conf is *the* part which makes the Corporate ID!

Admirable: Patience and competence of EVObeta team

Amount of testing by EVObeta team with 74 institutes

Patience of moderators in case ofSound problems

Quiet or tired students

Video Conf part is still the weakest part of the program,

but also the central connecting part!

We need to work on it, but should really keep it!

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4) Long term planning (assuming 4 years funding) a) MAIN needs and questions

Most to be coordinated by new management person to hire:New exercises

ASEC LHC exercise (Athens)Other new LHC exercises? Advanced (like WW, alpha_s)?Maybe astro-particlephysics exercise (France, Erlangen?) Trial sessions / trial days

Involvement of teachersPreparation and wrap-up at school (example: quarknet)Teacher‘s day(s)?

same fomat, more/different discussions? Combined with in-service training?

Develop special material for that?

Video conferenceNeeds thorough revisiting!Strict technical quality rules to be assuredAssure long-term technical support(EVO should be interested in us as use-case!?)Make moderator team (even) larger?

Assure long-term fundingAmple time for applications during 4 yearsExercise developpers, in-service training material

Do we need funding for that?Or e.g. cover it in student teacher theses?

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b) Further points for future discussion

Improve Media coverage, articles

Travels of students (and teachers) as prizes?

Automatize evaluation (see plans above)

ScheduleHow many days maximum?

How many institutes/day maximum?

How many masterclasses outside of central weeks?

Some separated Masterclasses in other time zones?(US, Brasil, ..)

…