A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo: A Guide to Particle Physics

A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo is a brief and ambitious expedition into the remarkably simple ingredients of all the wonders of nature. Tour guide, Professor Cindy Schwarz clearly explains the language and substance of elementary particle physics for the 99% of us who are not physicists. With hardly a mathematical formula, views of matter from the atom to the quark are discussed in a form that an interested person with no physics background can easily understand. It is a look not only into some of the most profound insights of our time, but a look at the answers we are still searching for. College and university courses can be developed around this book and it can be used alone or in conjunction with other material. Even college physics majors would enjoy reading this book as an introduction to particle physics. High-school, and even middle-school, teachers could also use this book to introduce this material to their students. It will also be beneficial for high-school teachers who have not been formally exposed to high-energy physics, have forgotten what they once knew, or are no longer up to date with recent developments.

Cindy Schwarz is a Professor of Physics at Vassar College. She earned a BSc in Mathematical Physics at the State University of New York at Binghamton and a PhD in experimental particle physics from Yale University. She remained active in the research field of particle physics from her arrival at Vassar in 1985 through 1992, working on experiments in high-energy physics at Brookhaven. She changed her line of scholarship in the mid-nineties to focus on pedagogy and curriculum design, with a focus on teaching and learning with technology and producing materials appropriate for those students not planning to major in physics (or even science).

Cindy is the sole author of three books, co-author on another book, author of one interactive CD-ROM, five articles, articles in Microsoft Encarta 2000, an interactive tutorial on the internet, and editor and publisher of Tales from the Subatomic Zoo. She has also published along with Jill Linz a children's book Adventures in Atomville: The Macroscope, which is available in print in English and Spanish and on nook, kindle and ibooks.

Cindy's first book A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo, published by Springer-Verlag was reviewed in Physics Today, The Physics Teacher, Choice and Scitech Book News. Scitech said 'A great little book, and if every physics textbook were like this, physics classrooms would be crowded'. The book also won the 1993 American Library Association Award for Outstanding Academic Book. Cindy is considered an expert on teaching particle physics to non-physicists as she has given numerous talks, workshops and keynotes and her book is used at other Universities.

Her second book, Interactive Physics Workbook, was the first of its kind. Now out in a second edition, the book is a compilation of 40 computer simulations specifically designed to make use of the technology for effective pedagogy and therefore improved student learning (and interest). Reviewers have said of the workbook: 'they are about the best of their type' and 'they are excellent tutorial software programs that stand apart from many of the current offerings'.

Cindy has authored several 'non-traditional' sets of material that make use of interactive learning either on the web or within a specialized program. These include, articles for Microsoft Encarta 2000, The Interactive Journey Through Physics CD, contributions to The Scholar's Way of Thinking and the Scholar's Way of Writing.

In 2002, Cindy compiled and edited selected student stories from her course A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo into the book Tales from the Subatomic Zoo. This publication is the one most relevant to the Atomville project as it involved anthropomorphizing subatomic particles. The book has already received a very good review in Choice (May 2003) and in STANYS The Science Teachers Bulletin. Quoting part of the review from Choice: 'As part of the course, she required her students to create a short story or poem with a subatomic theme. She has categorized this best collection into three parts: General Interest, Fairy Tales for Young Children, and Poems. All the stories and poems in this collection were created over several years by Schwarz's students, most of whom were nonscience majors. Their contributions are very imaginative and range in expression from science fiction to realism, from historical fiction to children's stories. To assist lay readers' understanding, Schwarz has included a glossary of terms. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels'.

Cindy is also very active in the physics community both locally and nationally. She was appointed to the APS Award Committee on Broadcast Journalism and served as its chair for two (out of three) years. She was appointed in 1999 to both the Committee on Computers in Physics and the Committee on Instructional Media of American Association of Physics teachers (AAPT) and has served on the Committee on Women in Physics twice. She was one of five editors for a series of books, Undergraduate Texts in Contemporary Physics, published by Springer-Verlag and has done numerous book reviews and made contributions to major physics texts. She also served on the APS Committee on Education for two years.