Particles and Interactions and the Standard Model
This topic is broken into units to help in formulating cohesive, effective lessons. Clicking on each unit title below will display appropriate activities, lesson plans, or labs.
Unit materials are a subset of all possible materials available for this topic, selected especially with the new physics teacher in mind. You may instead browse all materials for this topic here .
Algebra-Based Physics Particles and Interactions and the Standard Model Units
The Standard Model summarizes the current knowledge in Particle Physics. It is the quantum theory that includes the theory of strong interactions (quantum chromodynamics or QCD) and the unified theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions (electroweak). Gravity is included on this chart because it is one of the fundamental interactions even though not part of the "Standard Model."
Lesson Plans:
This is the page for Energy Teachers, a free service that organizes all resources for planning lessons and units about energy production and use, inspired by the AAPT summer meeting, 2003.
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This is the direct link to teacher-created lessons and activities related to CHICOS, a network of more than 100 cosmic ray detector sites involving K-12 schools. Be sure not to miss the activity on muon particles.
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Activities:
This activity was developed as a simple, low cost, and engaging laboratory experiment, suitable for introductory physical science classes, yet also adaptable for more advanced high school physics courses.
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This web page outlines a student activity on atoms and the periodic table. The assignment includes instructions about how to write a children's book for 3rd and 4th graders on the topic of the elements from the cover to the end of the book. It is a performance-based activity designed to promote critical thinking about atomic and molecular structures as students characterize and model the structures in a storybook format. Grading rubrics are also included.
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References and Collections:
This activity is an online "hangman" game with clues about properties of matter.
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The CHICOS project is an active research network for the detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays that includes more than 100 K-12 schools in southern California. The web site includes information about the research and a collection of activities, tutorials, and reference materials on particle physics for beginners.
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Content Support For Teachers:
The LAPTAG plasma laboratory, funded in part by the DOE, is a high-school based project designed to make the study of plasma physics more accessible to secondary students. Click on the first link for the complete, cost-free lab manual. The next link provides detailed lecture notes explaining the processes that occur when charged particles become a plasma.
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Student Tutorials:
This is a well-designed set of tutorials to give students a good general overview of nuclear science, from nuclear structure to radioactivity and half-life. Check out the activity on how to build a cosmic ray detector, complete with detailed lab manual.
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References and Collections:
The Virtual Visitor Center is a resource for students and teachers at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. History of discovery, information about the detectors and the tools used to explore the very small are available on this web site.
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Content Support For Teachers:
During the second world war, Lisa Meitner's work on atomic energy was largely overlooked and her discoveries attributed to others. Years later, when she became the first woman to receive a share of the Fermi Award for her physics -- and, implicitly, for her contributions to the bomb she never wanted to make, she was 88 and too ill to travel. Others accepted it for her.
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