Velocity Detector

What is everything made of? Scientists have been trying to answer this question for centuries, but we still don’t know the answer! In order to learn more about the smallest building blocks of nature, known as particles, scientists smash them together at very high speeds and watch what spews out. To see the particles produced, scientists and engineers build enormous detectors. The detectors act just like cameras and take “snap shots” of collisions. By carefully analyzing many of these “snap shots,” we can learn more about particles. The Large Hadron Collider speeds up particles into head-on collisions inside the barrel-shaped Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector. A 3D “snap shot” of a collision taken by the CMS detector is shown. The two large green columns are two high-energy particles that likely came from a very rare and interesting phenomenon. We definitely want to design our detector to be good at measuring the energy of particles.

Students will design a detector that can measure the energy of particles (speed/velocity).  It will be connected to the output of a “velocity initializer”

which will output a particle (ping pong ball) at different speeds.
A blue barrel shaped collider detecting atoms moving around it

Velocity Detector TEK8 Student Guide

The student handout will be given to all students working on the design
challenge. It gives a brief recap of the story, it helps the students identify what they are attempting to achieve, and it recaps the design process.

Velocity Detector TEK8 Instructor’s Guide

This Instructor’s Guide provides the instructor additional information on how to run the design challenge with alternatives for materials and test setups as well as information to help make the design challenge a good educational experience.

Telling the Story Video

The Telling the Story Video conveys the societal impact of the student’s research that is the basis for the design challenge and will set the problem-solving context for students.

Design Challenge Video

The Design Challenge Video leads students through the design process. It indicates materials available, states what the criteria are for success and any constraints. It also gives a second ‘level’ of the design challenge that allows ‘early completers’ to move on to a slightly more difficult challenge.

PowerPoint Presentation

Velocity Detector Template

The presentation can be used in conjunction or in place of the Design Challenge Video.