Welcome to the Outreach section of the MSU High Energy Theory website. This site describes our group's engagement in outreach and provides access to materials we have created or assembled for hands-on experiments with K-12 students, teachers, and the general public.

The tab labeled "Our Role" gives an overview of the various outreach activities in which group members are engaged locally and nationally.

The "Physics" tab provides a visual introduction to the main topics of our public education efforts: (a) the development of our theoretical and experimental understanding of atoms and (b) the roles atoms play in our everyday lives.

The "Resources" area contains materials for use by those interested in starting or augmenting their own public outreach efforts. These tip sheets, equipment lists, and slides have been developed by High Energy Theory faculty members in collaboration with MSU undergraduates – and have been tested in a variety of venues.

Finally, we provide "Links" to other outreach resources in the high-energy physics community, many provided by (inter)national particle and nuclear physics laboratories.

Members of the High-Energy Theory group at MSU engage in a variety of engagement and public outreach activities throughout the year in the East Lansing area. We are also involved with events coordinated by national laboratories and professional organizations or held in conjunction with physic conferences worldwide.

Faculty working with Undergraduates

HET faculty members collaborate with undergraduate students each year to create educational materials, test them at outreach events in the East Lansing area, and revise them based on experience. The materials presented on this site (slides, tip sheets, equipment lists) have resulted from these collaborations.

Local Outreach Activities in which HET group members regularly participate

• East Lansing Girls' Math Science Conference
• MSU Grandparents University
• MSU Lyman Briggs College's Spartan Science Day
• MSU Physics and Astronomy Research Opportunities for Undergraduates
• MSU Physics and Astronomy Society of Physics Students
• MSU Visiting International Professionals Program

National Organizations Sponsoring Outreach Activities in which HET group members are active

• APS Division of Particles and Fields
• Aspen Center for Physics
  
• LHC Theory Initiative
  
• QuarkNet

These websites provide information on particle physics for educators, students, and the general public.

• The Particle Adventure is an interactive tour of quarks, neutrinos, antimatter, extra dimensions, dark matter, accelerators, and particle detectors from the Particle Data Group of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
• The Particle Detectives is a site created for inquisitive 14-19 year olds and their teachers who want to learn about the physics of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
• Interactions.org is a communication resource featuring the latest information from the world's particle physics laboratories.
• The Fermilab Science Education Office located at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory provides science education resources and activities for educators, physicists, students, and the general public.
• Fermilab's Particle Physics Timeline shows how questions about nature's building blocks have been explored with a variety of tools over the last century.
• The SLAC Virtual Visitor Center introduces the general public, particularly students and teachers to the science studied at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the tools used to investigate that science.
• The CERN Education Website offers information about teacher programmes and education resources for schools.
• The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University offers extensive Outreach programs to K-12 students, educators, and the public.
• The Students and Educators portion of the International Linear Collider website describes the scientific purpose of this proposed new experimental facility.