Last year, the physics students from San Jacinto High School were uncontested international champions. This year, much like the world of particle physics they are studying, things were uncertain.
This was the third year in a row that a group of about 40 San Jacinto students traveled to UC Riverside for two days to learn how subatomic particles are detected, how some of them behave and how to identify several of the particles, in particular, the Z particle.
On Tuesday afternoon, the students spent about two hours in front of computer screens analyzing trails left by the particles spawned in proton collisions. They were asked to estimate the probability of Z particles decaying into other particles.
Wednesday morning, they participated in a teleconference with students from Italy, Poland, France and Portugal. The group that came closest to the accepted probability was supposed to win bragging rights. Unlike last year, when the San Jacinto group came out on top, this year's results were too close to call.
But Mark Bonnard, 53, the physics instructor at San Jacinto High School, said the most important part of the event is getting youths turned on to science.
The annual exercise has been going on in Europe for many years, Bonnard said. He learned about it three years ago. He contacted CERN, the Geneva-based scientific organization that heads the Large Hadron Collider, and was put in touch with Pedro Abreu in Portugal. Abreu is in charge of his country's participation in the student exercise.
In an effort to get his youths involved, Bonnard made a trip to Portugal, at his own expense, to meet with Abreu.
"It was a pretty hair-brained idea," he said.
His team has been competing ever since.
Elizabeth Aguilar, 16, is a junior at San Jacinto High School. She said the physics students who came to UCR have been meeting once a week after school since the school year began in order to prepare for the exercise.
'the real thing'
She was excited about being in a university setting.
"This is work a lot of college students are doing," she said of the analysis she and her fellow students engaged in. "I think it goes a bit deeper than what you would learn in a (high school) class."
That exposure is the point of participating in the exercise, Bonnard said.
His students, he said, "get to come here and it's the real thing. They see that what I'm talking about is real. It gives validity to my whole program."
It also gives them an idea of the possibilities that are open to them in the sciences, he said.
Senior Victor Adame, 17, said he had never considered pursuing a science career before taking Bonnard's physics class.
"Before, it seemed like more science fiction," Adame said of the things he has been studying. "It opened my eyes. Now I'm trying to think about going more into physics."
UCR physics professor Bill Gary, who coordinates the exercise, said so far San Jacinto is the only Inland school involved.
"We want to grow it, but principals are reluctant to let their students come for two days," he said.
Still, with the single school participating, he already has seen a payoff.
"Some of Mark's kids have matriculated here and have been in my class," he said.
He motioned to the group on hand. "In a class of 40, if you can hook one, that's great."
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