Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
UK schools get a taste of the world's biggest physics experiment
As the world's biggest physics experiment is switched on, budding scientists from schools all over the UK are benefitting from a wealth of new educational resources that bring current science to the classroom and provide science teachers with free, professionally produced teaching materials to support their subject.
On September 10th 2008 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was switched on and for the first time proton beams circled the 27 kilometer long collider. This signals the start of experiments that will recreate conditions that existed billionths of a second after time began and uncover some of the deepest mysteries of the origins and workings of our universe.
This new range of educational resources reveals how particle physics holds the key to these mysteries and how the LHC will attempt to unravel them. They have been created by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds the UK involvement in the international LHC project. This work is part of STFC's Science in Society programme.
Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of STFC said, "The LHC is one of those exciting milestones in science which may vastly change our understanding of physics and the universe. It's great that we can share our cutting edge science with UK school pupils and keep science teachers abreast of the new and exciting developments in particle physics."
Ian Pearson, Minister for Science and Innovation, said "The UK is a world leader in science, which is why this Government has invested more than £500m in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Our involvement in this groundbreaking project will strengthen our already close links with international partners, inspire young people to pursue science and provide exciting developments for UK scientists in the areas of physics, engineering and computing."
The resources include:
* Several publications about particle physics, the Big Bang and the LHC
* Professionally produced 15 minute films about the fundamental building blocks of nature, the fundamental forces of nature and the quantum world
* An award winning website for 14-19 year olds and their teachers that allows them to run their own particle collisions on an LHC simulator.
(A full list of the resources is available in the notes for editors)
Students from the Simon Langton Grammar School said, "Particle Hunters (on the STFC LHC website) is a fascinating programme. It makes the task of physicists at CERN searching for the Higgs much more comprehensible to A level Physics students such as me. My excitement when I finally captured a track unique to the Higgs Boson using the simulation, is incomparable to the prospect of discovering the Higgs Boson for real.
"Having visited the LHC at CERN, I am inspired by the gathering excitement surrounding First Beam day, especially as a young physics student with potential opportunities to be involved myself in the fairly near future."
Becky Parker, Head of Physics at the Simon Langton Grammar School, added "The STFC has developed excellent resources to make this amazing experiment accessible and understandable to teachers and students. The site I particularly use is http://www.collidingparticles.com/. Not only do the physicists give a fantastic explanation of their efforts and collaboration to detect the Higgs, but also their sense of fun and passion to understand such fundamental basics of the Universe comes across so well.
"We have also taken advantage of the CERN visits and there is something inspirational about taking students to see the LHC. They are awestruck by the enormity of it and the number of physicists and engineers working there. The sheer size and complexity is breathtaking for them.
"Having access to such amazing real physics is certainly inspiring my students to become interested in physics and continue with physics and engineering for their futures."
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