Deer Park students monitor cosmic rays through BNL project
Technicians from Brookhaven National Laboratory conducted a hands-on training session for the Deer Park High School students who are enrolled in chemistry and physics and are actively taking part in these modern physics experiments. Deer Park High School has been home to a cosmic ray analytical device on loan from Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is currently the location for one of the data collecting stations in the area for the Mixed Apparatus for Radar Investigation of Atmospheric Cosmic-Rays of High Ionization (M.A.R.I.A.C.H.I.). The students built a detector station that works in tandem with detector stations in Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Lab. Deer Park students built detectors that catalogue and count cosmic particles, and most critical cosmic ray showers, which enter our atmosphere and reach the surface of the earth. Deer Park High School Advanced Placement Physics teacher Joseph Sundermier and Chemistry teacher Theodore Smirlis have been instrumental in bringing this project to Deer Park High School. Mr. Smirlis recognizes the innovative opportunity available for his students to experience. "This is really cutting edge research that nobody has investigated before. The ultimate goal of the M.A.R.I.A.C.H.I. project is to be able to detect cosmic ray showers using radiowaves and ultimately try to extract the energy from these high energy particles." Deer Park students have been exposed to Long Island's leading scientists and researchers. Senior Physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Physics Department Helio Takai is at the forefront of developing these complex programs that utilize student scientists. "We decided to place the conventional detectors in high schools. The idea being that schools would be responsible for the equipment and we would involve students in research projects to explain the physics and how the equipment works. We have developed experiments and demonstrations together with teachers and have incorporated students into the research. The results have been a very good experience." Shown in the top photo, Jack Steffens, one of the instructors from Stony Brook University, identifies the internal workings of a forward radar detector that will be installed in the classrooms of these Deer Park students.
Shown in the bottom photo, students work together in their lab to build a forward radar detector after a soldering demonstration.
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