TGGS students visit CERN

A group of Sixth Form Physics students have been inspired by a visit to CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider.

During the visit on 9^th December, the students discovered how CERN is helping to answer some of the most fundamental questions; how did the Universe begin? What are the basic building blocks of matter? Scientific breakthroughs such as the discovery of the Higgs boson require experimental machines on the large scale, and the students gained an appreciation of the technical and engineering challenges that the multinational experimental collaborations at CERN face.

Physics Teacher Mr J Castillo said, ‘it was a great experience for our students to see what’s going on at the forefront of physics, meet extremely motivated scientists and see for themselves the scale of the engineering and technology required to make this multinational research facility viable.  All students had an opportunity to build a particle detector and learn about all the different fundamental particles included in the Standard Model. Overall, a truly inspiring encounter with 21^st century science!’.

Annabel Clarke, a year 13 Physics student at TGGS, said, “the trip to CERN has been an intriguing and informative insight into the science and theory behind particle collision furthering my understanding of Physics and inspiring future career paths opportunities”. Madeleine Brett, another year 13 Physics student at TGGS said, “it was really interesting to see Physics being applied to solve complex problems and discover new particles”.

While in Switzerland the students also visited the UN, took in a chocolate factory tour and experienced L'escalade celebrations in Old Town Geneva.