Particle Physics Teaching Material: Charges, Interactions and Particles

This textbook is part of a four-volume series of teaching material on particle physics developed by the German Netzwerk Teilchenwelt in cooperation with the Joachim Herz Foundation. It covers the theoretical background of the Standard Model of particle physics in a didactically reduced way and primarily serves as a source of information for teachers, although the texts should be understandable for advanced or highly interested students as well. The three base concepts of the Standard Model, namely charges, interactions and particles as well as their dependencies are introduced. The focus of this educational approach is set to charges as the reasons for interactions. The spectrum of existing elementary particles plays a secondary role. In addition to educational advice concerning difficult terms and concepts, a spiral curriculum is outlined which allows to include aspects of particle physics on different degrees of difficulty throughout secondary and high school education. In this context, connections to common contents of physics curricula are pointed out. The volume also includes exercises for the use in class. The PDF file of the textbook can be downloaded here. Printed versions of the textbook can be ordered free of charge by contacting Netzwerk Teilchenwelt via mail@teilchenwelt.de. All volumes of this teaching material can be downloaded at https://www.teilchenwelt.de/tp. A more comprehensive collection of teaching material can be found at https://www.teilchenwelt.de/material/materialien-fuer-lehrkraefte/.