Lights! Camera! QuarkNet!

by Kurt Riesselmann

The QuarkNet program aims to educate high school students in physics. In the next few months, however, the program may give the next generation of newscasters a head start.

To share the excitement of the upcoming start of Fermilab's Tevatron accelerator with students nationwide, Fermilab invited 23 local QuarkNet students to record their personal views of how Run II is taking shape. The students will produce four videos, which they will broadcast on the Internet at the end of April.

On January 30 the students met at Fermilab for the first time. Fermilab's Tom Jordan, who organized the video project, explained the idea.

"We're asking you to produce an evening news special," he said. "Some of you will be the anchormen, some of you will be the correspondents. You will report on Run II, show footage of Fermilab and interview scientists." Like professionals, Jordan said, he expects them to gather information, write scripts, record video footage and meet deadlines.

Equipped with pencils and notebooks, the students went straight to work and toured Fermilab, including a trip down into the pit of the DZero detector hall. Standing in front of this 5,000-ton electronic monument, the students quickly pulled out their cameras to capture the moment.

Watch out, Dan Rather!