Particle Physics Masterclass 2010

A-level students visited Daresbury Laboratory on 15-16 March to take part in the annual Particle Physics Masterclass. Students from schools around the area, were given talks and practical demonstrations and challenges related to particle accelerators, including a hands-on experiment to measure energy in ALICE, an R&D prototype for the next generation of accelerator based light sources.

The activities, organised by the Cockcroft Institute, also showed that particle accelerators have other applications than just particle physics. Dr Lee Jones, an accelerator physicist at the Cockcroft Institute, said “Some of the concepts of physics can be difficult for teachers to deliver and for students to grasp, but it’s also one of the most exciting subjects to teach. There’s worldwide excitement about the discoveries that may be made at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN for example, which may challenge what we think we know about the nature of matter. Hopefully the students we inspire through the Masterclasses can rise to meet these challenges, and who can tell where that journey might lead them?”