QuarkNet Tips for Mentors
The Top 5 Hints from QuarkNet Mentors
- Make sure you have and spend enough time with the teachers
- Be prepared ñ and prepare the teachers with documentation, textbooks, etc. at an appropriate level (advanced undergrad often works)
- Stay connected, stay in touch, stay nice
- Develop physics projects for the teachers
- Follow teacher advice as much as possible ñ they have good ideas!
The Top 5 Pratfalls for Mentors
- Not having the research project ready to go when the teacher arrives
- Vague or incomplete support from your institution
- Under- or overestimating the ability and background of the teachers
- Being underprepared
- Physicist jargon
Quotable Quotes
Stay connected. It is extremely easy to let day-to-day work take priority, and leave your teacher dangling in the office for days. You should try to have at least one meeting a day, even if it is just sitting down together at lunch or a coffee break. This comes back to maintaining enough time in your schedule for interactions, and provides ample opportunity for questions and clarifications around the papers etc. that your teacher is digesting.
-Michael Kelly, SLAC
Be prepared to spend a lot of time, and always INSIST in having a faculty member in ALL meetings. Be prepared to work on Saturdays. Be prepared to explain the same problem in 10 different ways - one of them will work.
-Helio Takai, BNL
Even the brightest and most motivated teachers cannot be expected to know very much about particle physics. We found the book by Barnett, Muhrey and Quinn, "The Charm of Strange Quarks" to be a useful introductory text. "The Particle Adventure" website is also particularly good.
-Bob Panvini, Vanderbilt
Resources Available to Help you Prepare Lead Teachers