High school students

Europhysics News, Jul 2018

Michael Kobel

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High school students

High school students' exposure to modern particle physics 0 Michael Kobel Department ofPhysics and Astronomy, Bonn University , Nussallee 12, D-S311.5 Bonn , Germany - odern physics of the 20lh and 21si century is hardly taught in M science courses at high schools in Europe. Nevertheless, introducing results of modern physics research at high-school level could positively influence the students' perception of today's role of physics, and along with it, their general interest in physics. On the other hand, discussing modern physics in too much detail or on too high a level might have the opposite effect. Therefore, appropriate topics and teaching material have to be identified and developed in close collaboration between scien­ tists and educators. An evaluation is needed to assess the success and to optimize both the material and its channels of distribution. Like all of us, young people from time to time seek to answer fundamental questions, such as what are we made of, where did matter come from, how did the Universe begin and how will it end? This would suggest that particle physics and cosmology is a topic of modern physics well suited for high schools. In recent years a wide range of material for the public understanding of particle physics has been developed, e.g. UK masterclass work­ shop exercises [IJ, German web-based teaching systems [2), or t.1.e material described by K.E.Johannson in tt..is issue. This article will focus on evaluations of such material with 16-19 year-old high-school students, recently performed at several locations in the UK and Germany. The spectrum of these events covers visits to exhibitions, "masterclasses" at universities, and particle physics in the classroom as a part of the curriculum, thus ranging from mainly passive visits, through active but short-term workshops, to longer-term science teaching and assessment. "TESLA-Light of the Future'; an exhibition on particle physics and more From 16.1. to 17.2.2002 a "journey to the origin of matter" and "insights into the most tiny dimensions of life" were offered to about 22,000 visitors to an exhibition in the centre of Berlin [3]. Among them were more than 70 school classes, mostly from grades 12 and 13 (17-19 year-olds). The topics of the exhibition were the forefront of particle physics research with the planned Electron-Positron Linear Collider TESLA, along with the exploitation of its accelerator technology for a Free Electron Laser light source with unprecedented brilliance, having applications in chemistry, biology and material science. The exhibition was real­ ized by DESY in the basement of the Volkswagen Automobile Forum where original equipment, models, posters, videos, and hands-on material were displayed in an area of700 m2• More than 250 students were interviewed [4J after the visit, which included an introductory talk and a tour guided by particle physicists or Ph.D. students. On a scale from 1 to 5 the students ranked particle physics to be quite interesting, with an average score of 3.9 for the male and 3.6 for the female students. Although this score is less enthusiastic than the one from the other visitors (4.3 and 3.9, respec­ tively), the general physics interest of the students increased about 8% more than that of the public: 45% of the male and 52% of the female students responded that their general interest in physics had grown strongly during the visit. This increase was higWy correlat­ ed (correlation coefficient p=26%) to the ability of the guides to stimulate this interest. In turn, the success of the guides was very much facilitated (p=42%), if the r~"~"·-~-~·-~"~-_·'-· physics interest of the stu­ . A Fig.ll"Hands-on" activities at the dents before the visit was TESLA exhibition in Berlin: already large. Independent \ a) accelerating a ball surfing on a wave of the guides' explanations, 1 with adjustable phase velocity those students who knew 1 b} focussing an electron beam using least about particle physics l q-u-a_dr.u._pole-m-ag-ne-ts - - - , - - before coming to the exhibi­ tion gained most in their general interest in physics (p=-13%). Regarding the type of presentation, apart from the guides, the 3­ dimensional models, the videos, and the eight hands-on stations (Figure 1) were the clear favourites. All visitors agreed, that only a few things could be improved, and that even more hands-on exhibits would be very good. For about 6 years particle physics groups at universities in the UK have invited 17-18 year old high school students to spend a day in the university [5], for a mixture of talks and practical computer activities [ 1 ], such as identifying particles. After rela­ tively little training the students are able to recognize various types of particles through real images of their tracks on comput­ er, in a way that mirrors exactly the activities of working particle physicists. Deep insights into the properties of elementary parti­ cles, such as the universality of the three ty (...truncated)


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Michael Kobel. High school students, Europhysics News, pp. 108-110, Volume 34, Issue 3, DOI: 10.1051/epn:2003307