Conservation laws, symmetries and elementary particles
Abstract
This workshop is based on a Dutch project for teaching Modern Physics to the top stream of the sixth year of secondary education. In a series of 35 lessons on topics including conservation laws, symmetries, and elementary particles, students study particle-wave duality, the Heisenberg principle, probability models for properties of particles, the particle in a box and applications, elementary particles, and astrophysics. Instead of discussing a myriad of particles and reactions, the core of the elementary particle chapter is formed by the following discussion of conservation laws and symmetries. Before getting to this point students have encountered conservation laws, reaction equations, nuclear reactions with just a few examples, energy and mass, binding energy and mass defect and some computations, quarks and leptons, and accelerators and detectors. The workshop is presented as an example of how to deal with elementary particles at the secondary level and as a handy background for teachers.