A particle detector design, build, and test project for modern physics labs

Work on a design, build, and test style project for a sophomore modern physics lab is presented. For this project individual students first design a particle detector system based on scintillators and silicon photomultipliers. These designs are presented to the class and the class then selects two winning proposals and teams are created to take these proposals to a full conceptual design. These teams present their designs to a faculty "review board" and receive feedback on these designs and experimental goals. Finally the class selects a winning proposal and spends the last 3 weeks of lab building and testing this design. During this project, students get to see the process for how many modern physics experiments are created and implemented and get hands-on experience creating a complete particle detector system from designing mounting hardware, to wrapping scintillators, to creating front end electronics, and to writing data analysis software. There is also a major group component where the system as a whole depends on each sub-group getting their assigned tasks completed. From a first implementation it was found that engagement was very high and the first group was able to build a working hand-held, battery powered radiation detector. Methods used and takeaways from the first implementation year will be presented.