CROP project to set up large cosmic ray air shower experiment July 21

Participants in this week's Cosmic Ray Observatory Project workshop at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will set up a large cosmic ray air shower experiment on UNL's City Campus July 21 as the culminating exercise in the weeklong workshop.

Starting at about 3 p.m., CROP participants will set up more than 70 scintillator detectors and GPS receivers on the lawn between Ferguson and Woods halls in the western part of the campus, with cables connecting to data-acquisition electronics inside Ferguson Hall.

"The experiment will run overnight Thursday and be disassembled on Friday morning. We expect to detect many large air showers during the night and we will analyze the data on Friday, the last day of the workshop," said Greg Snow, co-director of CROP along with fellow UNL physicist Dan Claes.

Workshop participants include some 70 high school science teachers and students from across Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicists, a faculty member and a graduate student from Creighton University, and observers from the Netherlands and Turkey.

Created in 2000 through a grant from the National Science Foundation, CROP is a statewide outreach project whose goal is to involve Nebraska high school students, teachers and college undergraduates in a multifaceted, hands-on research effort to study extended cosmic-ray air showers.

Following is an alphabetical list of high schools and teachers participating in this week's CROP workshop; Anselmo-Merna (Rhonda Hoyt); Bancroft-Rosalie (Theresa Sedivy); Douglas County West (John Niemoth); Elkhorn Mount Michael (Rev. Michael Liebl); Keya Paha County (Sandy Lewis); Lincoln High (Jim Rynearson); Loup County (Loren Sandoz); McPherson County (Sabrena Clinebell); Omaha Westside (John Rogers); Scottsbluff (Lisa Grotelueschen); and Spalding Academy (Polla Hartley). Students from Lincoln Science Focus School and Lincoln Southwest are also participants.

CONTACTS: Greg Snow, Assoc. Professor, Physics, (402) 472-6279; and
Dan Claes, Assoc. Professor, Physics, (402) 472-2783