My experience at McMurdo Station involved the study of neutrons caused by cosmic radiation from the sun. The sun can be very active. Changes in the sun's active surface can result in the ejection of high energy particles (from solar flares, coronal mass ejections, or related phenomena). Some of these particles can get sent toward the earth
Presentation prepared for the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education related to the PolarTREC 2017 Neutron Monitors for Solar Study expedition.
Students will examine sunspots and track them at different latitudes on the Sun.
This activity is adapted from the Tracking Sunspots activity on NASA’s Solar and Heliocentric Observatory (SOHO) website (2009): https://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/classroom/for_students.html.
Objectives:
Students begin to familiarize themselves with solar activity by tracking sunspots at different latitudes on the Sun.
This activity is designed to get students thinking about
This is a suite of labs created by Michigan State University and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA). It provides a number of lessons and activities in nuclear physics. It can be used to demonstrate the types of reactions typical in cosmic ray interactions and the interactions that the CosRay neutron monitors depend on.
This article from the San Francisco Chronicle is about Casey O'Hara's upcoming expedition to Antarctica. It also includes some great photos from a pre-expedition icecream making lab. You can visit the article online here.
FAIRBANKS — A group of high school science and math teachers who could help unlock the secrets of the universe were in Fairbanks last week. The five teachers, who come from all over the Lower 48 as part of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, were training for the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a telescope located at the South