Barnhart School Installs Cosmic Ray Detectors

Arcadia, CA (11/24/04) In cooperation with the California Institute of Technology, Barnhart School is the 63rd school to install cosmic ray detectors connected to a computer in the middle school science classroom.  The project is called the California High School Cosmic-Ray Observatory (CHICOS).  These detectors will collect data on the little-understood, super high energy cosmic ray particles originating in outer space.

For the past few years, Los Angeles-area students and their teachers have teamed up with a Caltech physicist, Robert D. McKeown to "catch" these ultrahigh-energy rays on their own campuses.

"The idea is, 'what do these things point back to?' " says McKeown. "And, can we learn something about where they come from as a result of that? This is real science. Maybe these things will point back to some exploding object in the sky, which is exciting to kids. And to me, for that matter."

The timing of when the showers hit the different schools is what tells scientists like McKeown a lot about where they came from. The cosmic rays will generate a "pancake" of rays that, as it falls, gets bigger and bigger. The particles will hit one detector first, then another one sometime later. The detectors at the center of the shower will have stronger signals than the detectors farther away.

Once the center of the shower is detected, the direction of the shower can be determined from the relative times. This is where the students come in--using trigonometry, they can reconstruct the direction of the showers, taking into account the orientation of the earth at that time.  Students are introduced to cutting-edge concepts in astrophysics and take part in real-life scientific research.

Middle School science teacher Mrs. Montgomery looks forward to using these concepts to tie into and enhance her discussions of atoms and particles, GPS systems, finding locations on Earth with latitude and longitude and changes in cells and their genetic material.  In the future, presenters from Cal Tech will be visiting Barnhart School to present information on the project and its applications. 

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