LIGO's commitment of providing support and encouragement for high school student science research is taking an exciting new direction thanks to the National Science Foundation's Interactions in Understanding the Universe program (I2U2). In mid-August 2006, six teachers checked in with LIGO for a two-day training session on the use of LIGO's I2U2 computer software. The software, known as the LIGO Data Analysis Tool, or LDAT, allows individuals at remote locations to plot and analyze data from a set of LIGO environmental data channels through internet connections. These channels carry data from seismometers, magnetometers and weather station sensors located at the LIGO Hanford site. An LDAT plot from a LIGO seismometer is shown below.

LIGO is one partner of several in the I2U2 endeavor. Headquartered at FermiLab in Illinois, the intent of I2U2 is to make data sets from large physics research projects available to students and teachers over the Web. Ultimately the set of I2U2 data analysis applications will run on the Grid, a nationwide linkage of major computing centers that will serve as the backbone for computing-intensive data analysis tasks across the physical sciences.

The LIGO I2U2 teacher workshop brought together a pilot group of teachers from Washington, Oregon, Indiana and Pennsylvania who agreed to road test LIGO's LDAT software with students during the 2006-2007 school year. The workshop agenda consisted of a bit of LIGO familiarization followed by intensive LDAT work time. The teachers learned to use the software themselves and developed a plan for implementing LDAT with students in coursework related to earth science/geophysics, wave behavior or scientific inquiry.

From the left in the photo above, Miranda Pihlaja attended from Prosser, Washington, 30 miles southwest of LIGO. LHO Outreach Coordinator Dale Ingram and Observatory Head Fred Raab hosted the workshop. Dr. Bill Lamb (Oregon Episcopal School) journeyed from Portland, OR. John Kerr (Pasco High) and Cathy Stordeur (Hanford High) teach in the Tri-Cities area. Dr. Tom Loughran flew in from South Bend, Indiana. Tom teaches a research class at a South Bend High School but also serves as a key developer of the I2U2 project through an appointment at the University of Notre Dame. He has led in the development of the I2U2 effort for the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector, a muon detector that is now coming on line at CERN in Switzerland. Philadelphia teacher Cynthia Green participated in the workshop remotely, using a workspace and networking facilities provided by Philadelphia's Constitution Hall. Pasco's John Kerr also provided workshop leadership, having spent the previous eight weeks at LIGO working on initial LDAT testing and development.

Another remote participant was LDAT developer Eric Myers, calling in from New York State for several workshop sessionw. Along with Dale Ingram, Fred Raab and John Kerr, Eric has developed the educational context and philosophy of the LDAT, drawing on his experience as a university physics instructor along the way. Eric also constructed the LDAT, transposing the basic computing framework of analysis software that runs in the LIGO control room into a Web-based interface that invites students to plot LIGO data without having to download the application or the data from the host server. As LDAT migrates towards a fully Grid-based application, students will remain unaware of all the behind-the-scenes computing dirty work that goes into the locating and plotting of a data set.

LIGO looks forward to the day when students across the country will use LDAT to scrutinize environmental fluctuations at the Observatory sites and, in so doing, become part of a high school science research community. Those who arrive at the I2U2 Web portal will see not only LIGO data waiting for analysis, but data from projects such as CMS, ATLAS, a cosmic ray detector network and other cutting-edge endeavors. I2U2 will be a one-stop science inquiry shop, providing data and analysis tools for physical science and earth science investigations of many types.

Educators who are interested in getting involved in LIGO's I2U2 effort, including the possibility of a summer 2007 workshop, are invited to send inquiries to LIGO Hanford Observatory at outreach(at)ligo-wa.caltech.edu