On Friday 15 March, our Year 13 Physics students attended a Masterclass on particle physics. Joining with schools from across Shanghai, students worked collaboratively to learn about the large hadron collider (LHC) at CERN, Switzerland/France. Exploring how the world’s largest scientific instrument functions to identify particles that make up all matter provided a unique glimpse into understanding the mysteries of what makes up the universe and how our understanding of these fundamental particles can be used in scientific, medical and engineering applications.
The Masterclass consisted of lectures regarding the LHC itself, its construction and function, including an in-depth discussion of the types of fundamental particles that it can detect. Students explore the different types of particles and their properties to determine how they might be detected. Following this, they worked collaboratively using actual data sets provided from the LHC to identify particles themselves using the properties they exhibited. They will engage further with physicists from CERN on Saturday to follow up on their analysis.
Following this work, students travelled to the Shanghai Synchrotron, the largest in Asia, to have a lecture from the head scientist and tour the facility that is being used by a large variety of industries from examining bacteria to developing new crystals for use in electronics.
Dr. Christopher Hurley
Innovation Coordinator