Needle in a Haystack

Do you have what it takes to detect an ultra-rare event in the race to unlock the mysteries of neutrinos? Find out with this engineering design challenge based on the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR experiment.

Grade level

Content area

Time required

~1 hour

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ultrasensitive germanium radiation detectors

Through this hands-on engineering design challenge, students will step into the shoes of researchers as they model the processes used to detect a radioactive decay event with a half-life greater than 1.3x1021 years.

Guided by background reduction and background rejection techniques, students gain an understanding of the challenges scientists face in their pursuit to define the true nature of neutrinos and discover if neutrinos are their own anti-particle.