Teaching particle physics to high school teachers

TL;DR

This paper explores effective methods for teaching particle physics to high school teachers in Norway, emphasizing conceptual understanding and analogies over technical details to foster appreciation of the subject.

Contribution

It presents a non-technical teaching approach using analogies to explain complex particle physics concepts to educators with limited mathematical background.

Findings

Conceptual explanations can effectively introduce gauge theory.

Analogies help clarify the structure of the standard model.

Teaching methods improve teachers' understanding of particle physics.

Abstract

In Norway, particle physics is part of the high school curriculum in physics which introduces the need for good university teaching in particle physics without the usual technical approach. Given how much conflicting information and inaccurate explanations there are on the subject; how should we teach this to people without much knowledge in mathematics? By carefully explaining the fundamental consepts of the theory it is fully possible to achieve an appreciation of particle physics without much mathematics. Through the use of analogies, such as an analogy between the freedom in choosing timezone and the freedom in choosing phase angle, one can introduce gauge theory and hence show the underlying structure of the standard model.