QUARKNET

If you are a high school physics teacher interested in joining the QuarkNet program at SMU Physics, please contact the program coordinator Dr. Durdana Balakishiyeva

​

QuarkNet provides recurring professional development for local physics teachers who are part of the program. The professional development occurs primarily during an annual summer workshop at a local center, supplemented with opportunities to participate in workshops at Fermilab, CERN, and ISE (Greece) and use of a cosmic ray detector at your school.

Teachers help develop inquiry-oriented investigations by which their students will learn about kinematics, particles, waves, electricity and magnetism, energy and momentum, radioactive decay, optics, relativity, forces, and the structure of matter.

The goals for teachers include a deeper understanding of physics content, an appreciation for the machinery of modern science, an introduction to inquiry-based teaching as well as evolution in individual teaching to a more student-centered mode of instruction.

The SMU QuarkNet center is one of about 50 nationwide. It began in Summer 2000 and has grown to a large and active network of high school teachers in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.