CERN Visit

by Chris Baker

Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire or CERN to be brief is the Mecca of physical sciences and it has been my pleasure as an interested chemist to escort hundreds of physics and science teachers on this pilgrimage. (by the way they try to play down the “Nucleaire” bit – something about the public associating the word nuclear with very bad things ). So, what is it like?

Well on the surface it is a bit like a cross between a university campus and a light industrial estate, spread-eagled across the Swiss/French border.

Large Hadron Collider courtesy of CERN

You can choose to eat in Restaurant 1 which is in Switzerland or Restaurant 2 which is in France and somewhere in between you can straddle the border if the mood takes you. You may wonder why I mentioned restaurants? Well it is in these restaurants where staff dine on refectory style tables where much scientific discussion goes on. Teachers have reported exciting conversations with scientists they sat next to at lunch although no one has claimed to have spoken to a Noble Prize Winner to date – but give it time. CERN prides itself on its openness and there is no restriction on taking photographs.

I will get on to the LHC (large Hadron Collider) later, but first it is worth remembering that CERN is not just world class in particle accelerators. It was where Tim Burners-Lee, a scientist at CERN, invented the World Wide Web as a means of sharing information for scientists around the world. You can visit Tim’s old office – an unassuming room in a dingy corridor now resplendent with brass plaque recording the historic event, and yes, you can get your photograph taken next to it! This helps to get across the message that CERN is a collaborative venture of scientists spread across the world who may work full time in Geneva or just visit to do occasional research and experiments.

CERN teachers’ programme

The teachers’ programme is mixed and varied. There is a practical activity – making a cloud chamber using aquarium tanks which one teacher improved on tremendously with an ingenious design using cheap seed propagators and and LED rope light. There are lectures which focus on academic particle physics – useful for teachers who are a little rusty in this area and great for snippets to teach how science works.

Rolf Lander, antimatter scientist and Head of Education at CERN, explains how historically models were developed and become accepted until someone disproves the model and new models are put forward. We had a good example of HSW (how science works) recently when the scientists in CERN found unusual results when they timed how long it took for neutrinos to travel from CERN to Italy. They appeared to travel faster than the speed of light and this made headlines in TV News and newspapers around the world. CERN scientists invited other scientists to investigate and try to replicate their data. The invitation did not last too long as CERN scientists discovered the reason for these anomalous results – a loose wire! Strangely this did not make the news to such an extent.

In the lecture on Medical Physics. Manjit Dosnajh helped to answer a key question that many people have about CERN i.e. what tangible benefits do taxpayers get from funding all these scientists. Manjit illustrated how work on Positron Emission Tomography (PET) carried out at CERN in 1977 led to hospital imagers which now run alongside CT and MRI scanners (often in combination) to provide information to treat cancers. A specialised version of a PET scanner has been developed which can detect small tumours missed by other scanners. This has proved very successful in the detection of breast cancers – and using the same technology as the LHC. This shows that technology developed at CERN is in use in our hospitals to increase survival rates from life threatening conditions

Physics in the movies

Rolf Lander provides an excellent lecture on the physics behind the film Angels and Demons. In the film 1g of antimatter is stolen from a laboratory in CERN and the plan is to use this to blow up the Vatican. In an entertaining lecture Rolf explains the physics behind the film and if it is really possible to create 0.5g of antimatter (enough to make a powerful bomb), just how long and how much electricity it would theoretically take. The cost by the way is: 1,000,000,000,000,000 euros with a delivery time of 1,000,000,000 years. Great stuff for teachers who can now legitimately intersperse physics lessons with clips from the Angels and Demons film. For the antimatter enthusiasts, CERN have produced a teaching module on antimatter.

The hunt for the Higgs Bosun

Data from CMS. courtesy of CERN

The highlight of the programme is a visit to CMS – Compact Muon Solonoid. CMS is just one of the LHC experiments but it was CMS that confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson in 2012 and it was enthralling to hear how this was done. When I got home my painter and decorator asked about my last visit. He had heard of the Higgs Boson and was interested. “Can you see it?” he asked. Several cups of tea later I had managed to explain that the Higgs Boson was detected by analysing signals and that the detection instruments took the equivalent of 4,000 pictures a second. He was still none the wiser and it really brought home to me that to teach particle physics successfully, it helps if you have a physics background but more importantly that you have the models, analogies and experiences which enable you to help students with the associated complex abstract thinking. This is one of the greatest benefits of a visit to CERN.

Huge Electromagnets

So the highlight for the teachers was CMS or maybe it was the magnet testing facility where you can stand next to some of the biggest electromagnets in the world. When fully operational over 21,000 amps flow through five huge coils to produce a magnetic field of between 4 and 8 tesla. One teacher proudly demonstrated a magnetic field detecting app on his iphone. He planned to use this in the magnetic testing area. We were expecting a fried iphone but he reported it worked really well!

The magnet testing facility also houses a mock up of the particle accelerator tunnel. This is very useful as access to the tunnel during operations is forbidden for obvious reasons. The tunnel is roughly the width and height of a poly-tunnel greenhouse with enough room to ride a bike along the side which is the primary mode of transport (when not operational!).

CERN programme highlights

The highlights of the CERN programme for me did not come from CERN but from the follow up day at the National Science Learning Centre in York. The programme has some interesting inputs on nuclear fusion amongst others, but the real stars were the teachers and what they did with the ideas, materials and experiences picked up at CERN. They were “fired up” by their visit and the enthusiasm of the CERN scientists and had completed a myriad of activities and projects. Many of them had gone on to arrange a CERN visit for their students. Others had woven anecdotes, models and analogies into theoretical topics. Some had run whole school assemblies on CERN and some showed pictures of their students and projects in their local newspaper.

If you have not made your pilgrimage to CERN, 2013 could be a good year to start.

The National Science Learning Centre is running a study visit to CERN in February 2013.

If you have already been to CERN we’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences of the trip as well as how you have applied it back into the classroom.

Latex, Lycra and Chocolate

By Stephen Burrowes

I don’t think it’s too contentious to state that children are naturally curious and if we can stimulate this curiosity then this makes the job of teaching science much easier and more rewarding. It is a pleasure to hear students volunteering the what if, how and why questions. The childlike rather than childish perspective can be so refreshing and it is a privilege to be part of a process where students end up leaving school to continue a lifelong interest in science whether this is as producers of science or consumers.

As a busy practitioner in the classroom it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed by the need to deliver specific examination focused subject knowledge. It is important that students are able to fulfil their potential in external examinations and by stimulating a child’s curiosity with intriguing phenomena or interesting materials you are providing the hook on which to hang the more prosaic examination focused science.

Three of my current favourite ‘hooks’ are electrolycra, latex and chocolate. The Science Enhancement Programme (SEP) has some suggestions for looking at the resistance of electrolycra in the classroom and it certainly makes a change from measuring the resistivity of copper wire. You can’t wear copper wire easily and it certainly isn’t as figure hugging. This splendid material always stimulates teachers on Practical Work in Physics and as a textile it also finds a place on Collaborative Learning in Science and Design & Technology.

I first used latex in the classroom as an introduction to polymers at KS4 and made rubber bands to demonstrate cross-linking. Of course rubber bands can also be used in the context of forces whether this is at KS2 or stress and strain in physics at KS5. With a little planning, latex can be used in many How Science Works contexts such as considering sustainability and natural resources or experimental design when it comes to measuring the extension of a rubber band. Latex often finds its way into my resources request for Introducing How Science Works.

The fact that it can be obtained from a plant makes it a truly flexible material and again SEP comes to the rescue of the busy teacher with “Fantastic Plastic.”

Whilst the Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a personal favourite when I was young, I also enjoyed the Royal Institution’s marvellous Christmas Lecture series which continued with Size Matters in 2010.

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) also has some interesting suggestions for things that can be done with chocolate in the classroom. I have also used chocolate in a course context in Enhancing Literacy in the Science Classroom in addition to just enjoying eating it!

I know from experience that students respond very positively to the activities I have briefly described and I hope to share my experiences with other latex, lycra and chocolate enthusiasts on a future Science Learning Centre West Midlands course.

Do you use chocolate in your lessons?  Tell us more….

Design and Technology Provides Safe Lift Off

by Michelle Evans at Science Learning Centre West Midlands

Flying is relevant to most of our lives, as ‘foreign’ holidays have become the norm. Yet it is often only when we are sat on a plane and ‘past the point of no return’ that we begin to wonder if it’s safe and even about the actual mechanics of how the tonnes of metal in which we are sat (not to mention our luggage) will actually get off the ground and safely deliver us to our sun-filled destination. Even within this consideration, we tend to think of the plane being essentially a

Hercules engine

chunk of metal and don’t really consider the enormous number of processes which have been undertaken to get to that one point. We don’t think about the time and effort and quality control procedures which go into the creation of a single hole in a tiny part of a blade which is crucial for the process of flying and to improve the efficacy of the engine as well as to reduce emissions.

However, at Rolls-Royce they spend a significant amount of time, effort (and money) ensuring that each tiny (and huge) element is completely fail-safe, efficient, light and effective. (I, for one, am rather pleased that they do!) What we may not realise is that this technology is as relevant to our teaching; certainly in Science and Design Technology; as it is to Rolls-Royce because we are working with and developing materials.

Materials science is a growing field with increasingly interesting discoveries and developments, Carbon Nanotubes, a relatively new discovery from the 1990s, are now present in both Design Technology and Science specifications where the structure and potential and current uses are required. ‘Smart’ materials are increasingly prevalent in society and therefore our teaching should be including and considering the uses of these developments within the field; the science behind these is really interesting and ground breaking, but the uses are now quite common; even including electro-conductive lycra (presumably for warm cycling shorts)!

Rolls-Royce Materials Masterclass course 2010

All manufacturing requires materials and it is important for the future to understand the level of research and development required in these processes. World leading manufacturer of jet engines; Rolls-Royce has significant experience with materials and continue to ‘push the boundaries’ in order to develop high quality, durable, light and safe components for their products. They are, after all, the reason that aeroplanes fly!

In order to capture this relevant and essential expertise, Rolls-Royce, the department of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and the Science Learning Centre West Midlands have collaborated to develop a two day course which brings to life this fascinating ‘topic’.

The Materials Masterclass is designed to support curriculum delivery. It draws on the areas of materials science in which Rolls-Royce has significant experience and can demonstrate examples of applications and the University of Birmingham are able to provide ideas for use in the classroom as well as discussing the science and technology behind materials and their uses.

Materials Masterclass course

This course offers an extension to your personal knowledge in the field as well as resources and ideas to take back to the classroom. This two-day course is sponsored by Rolls-Royce and The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers and supported by the Department of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), the latter also offer free institutional membership to the Schools Affiliate Scheme for participants.

Go to the Science Learning Centre’s website for more information or to book your place on the Materials Masterclass