The General Atomics Fusion Education Team is having its annual 2-day teachers workshops where the motto is: "You make it - you take it" during the last week in June. We will be making a working variable-pressure plasma demonstration unit this year that requires an external vacuum pump. The demonstration is an exciting way to teach students about plasma as a fourth state of matter. The demonstration is designed to bare the nature of a vacuum and the excitation of gas molecules into a plasma state without losing the science in the complexity of the gadget.

The pump is a crucial component of the demonstration since it allows the user to vary the pressure within the plasma chamber to produce varying changing patterns due to changing mean free path distances, number of collisions, and maybe even gas species. Because commercial electric vacuum pumps are expensive, we have only a limited number of pumps to give away. Thus, we encourage all of you who are interested in the workshop and who have a vacuum pump in good (safe) working order to bring it to the workshop. We will supply the correct fittings, oil, minor adjustments, and operating instructions if needed.

When you sign up for the workshop, please indicate whether you have a pump or not; if you indicate yes, we will contact you regarding the style of pump you have and if it will be appropriate for the course.

Session 2 is for those of you who do not have a working vacuum pump

Session 1 is for those of you who already have a working vacuum pump

The 2 - day teacher workshop where YOU MAKE IT and YOU TAKE IT!
Dates for the 2 - day workshops:
Session 1: June 25 - 26, 2007
Session 2: June 27 - 28, 2007
Time: 8:30 am - 4:00 pm
Location: General Atomics Fusion
Facility, Sorrento Valley

Supported by a grant from the US Department of Energy/Office of Fusion Energy Science, General Atomics, and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Register at:
http://fusioned.gat.com/teacher_workshop.php

The number of available slots is limited