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the glencoe anchor | October 17, 2019 | 13
New Trier students design experiment for Fermilab
Submitted by New Trier
New Trier juniors Paul
Graham and Ellie Winkler
have spent the past year
working with a team of 15
other Chicago-area high
school students and teachers
to propose, design,
build and analyze a unique
high-energy physics experiment
for the worldrenowned
Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory
(Fermilab) in Batavia.
Now, the students plan
to submit an article about
their findings for publication
and present at the
American Association of
Physics Teachers Winter
Meeting in Orlando this
coming January — all before
even entering their
senior year of high school.
Graham and Winkler
became interested in highenergy
physics as freshmen
after visiting New
Trier’s Academic Assistance
Center, an on-site
tutoring center staffed
mostly by retired teachers.
In the spring of 2018, AAC
tutor Nathan Unterman installed
a detector for students
to learn about cosmic
rays, the high-energy
protons and atomic nuclei
that rain down on the earth
from outside the solar system.
“I think that particle
physics and astrophysics
really appeal to me
because looking at what
makes up the universe on
the tiny scale and on the
really large scale, I just
think that’s super fascinating
and mysterious,”
Winkler said. “I think as
New Trier Juniors Paul Graham (left) and Ellie Winkler
spend their Sunday analyzing experiment results at
New Trier High School’s Northfield campus on Sept. 8.
Photo Submitted
of right now that’s what I
want to do with my life.”
The duo continued participating
in research and
contributing to shared data
as they transitioned to New
Trier’s Winnetka Campus
last fall, when they began
running feasibility studies
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“What they have accomplished so
far is nothing short of amazing.”
Jason English — Chairman of New Trier Science
Department on the New Trier students’
high-energy experiment.
1
from the Tower Building
on that campus. Soon after,
Unterman introduced them
to a group of Chicago-area
students and teachers from
Glenbrook North, Downers
Grove South, Naperville
Central, Ida Crown,
Rochelle Zell and the University
of Illinois at Chicago.
By December, the students
joined forces to
further their studies and
design an experiment
for Fermilab. The teachers
guided the students
through the process of feasibility
study, filing a formal
proposal, execution,
analysis and reporting, and
the experiment was approved
in March 2019.
The High School Students’
Muon Underground
Shielding Experiment
(MUSE) is an authentic
cosmic ray experiment
conducted in Fermilab’s
MINOS neutrino tunnel,
which houses detectors
placed in the world’s
most intense acceleratorgenerated
neutrino beam
103 meters below ground
and connects to the surface
through an access shaft
Please see physics, 19
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