Hosted by OSOS , contributed by baneva on 25 February 2018
CERN Master Class is important for inspiring science education and increasing the interest of young people in natural sciences. CERN Master Class takes place every year in spring. The days for the CERN Master class in 2018 are in the period from 15 February to 28 March. It is a joint event of CERN, a local University or Research institute with Schools. On one day in this period school students in the age of 15– to 19‐years come to the nearest University or Research Institute. Alternatively, scientists can go to a school. The students first have a lecture by active scientists on topics and methods of basic research on the fundaments of forces and matter. Then the students have the opportunity to perform themselves measurements on real data particle physics experiments. The measurements are given by CERN, they are from different experiments and have to be selected for each master class in advance. Tutors are explaining and helping the students about the measurements. The students work in pairs (2 students on a laptop or computer). There has to be one tutor for 10 students. At the end of the day (16‐17h CET), just like in real research collaboration the participants join in a videoconference with CERN or FERMI lab to discuss and combine their results with scientists from these centres.
RRI principles
One of the key aspects of OSOS is the inclusion of RRI — Responsible Research and Innovation — principles (more information at RRI-Tools.eu). This is how this Accelerator fits into the RRI model:
|
Governance |
Students will collaborate with several stakeholders in their community, with whom they will discuss different aspects of the project and get feedback throughout all the stages. I.e.: students will discuss with scientists and share the democratic governance of purposes of research and innovation of the science at CERN and its orientation towards useful for the humanity impacts. |
|
Public Engagement |
Students will contact different type of stakeholders, especially organizations close to science and education, who will help students to have the best solutions according to the problem addressed by this Accelerator. I.e.: several stakeholders, like teachers, local educational authorities, scientists will be involved in this accelerator, |
|
Gender equality |
The human resources management of this projects respects gender equality. I.e.: boys and girls will have the equal opportunity to participate in the project and the experts involved will be both men and women. |
|
Science Education |
This activity fits best the science education principle; it challenges the students with the necessary knowledge and tools to fully participate and take responsibility in the research and innovation process. I.e. students take part in real research, they define a research problem, analyze the data, draw a conclusion and get a new result, which they discuss with other scientists like in a real scientific collaboration. |
|
Ethics |
Student participate in real CERN research work and CERN science respects fundamental rights and the highest ethical standards in order to ensure increased societal relevance and acceptability of research and innovation outcomes. I.e.: taking part in this accelerator the students will share and learn about the ethics issues of CERN scientific responsible research. |
|
Open Access |
Participating in this accelerator students will accept the CERN Open Access policy. CERN has an Open Data Portal where datasets are available with the corresponding software and documentation for use. Such data are provided by CERN for this accelerator to happen. Students hare resources and materials with the stakeholders involved in the project and also in the Internet, open and free, for the users interested in the project. I.e.: materials and resources collected within this accelerator will be available for free on the Internet, since they can help people in developing their own projects. |
References:
http://physicsmasterclasses.org
https://atlas.physicsmasterclasses.org/videos/warum.mp4
http://atlas.physicsmasterclasses.org/videos/warum.mp4
This accelerator was developed by Foundation Open Science
in cooperation with CERN, the Faculty of Physics, Sofia University and
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
contact Boyka Aneva fos@openscience.bg
Feel
Participating in this activity the students will percieve what the physicists at CERN do and how they do research in the phyisics of elementary particles. They will feel like real scientists seeking the composition of our Universe. The students will feel engaged in research activity.
Science is driven by curiosity, among others. Participating in this activity the students feel curious and interested. In a perfect way the CERN Masterclass helps them become aware of the most up-to-date achievments of modern elementary particle physics. The students are placed in such a setting that heps them immerse in the scientific atmosphere of CERN. During the day of the masterclass they perform real measurements in particle physics, they become aware of how and what the physicists at CERN are doing and this makes them feel like real researchers.
CERN is a leading world centre in the physics of elementary particles. The largest accelerator is there - the Large hadron Collider, LHC, is there. Inside it two proton beams collide at very high energies alowing new particles to be detected. The most recent discovery was the Higgs boson, detected in July 2012. The particle is associated with the Higgs field that physicists think permeates all of space-time and helps give other particles their mass. For that reason it is called the God Prticle. The Nobel prize physics in 2013 was jointly awarded to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs for this discovery.
.
Imagine
This is a hands - on particle physics experiment. The students will have the possibility to discuss science ideas within a group, to think critically on the open problems in the contemporary modelling and understanding of Nature by physicists. They will imagine problem-solving suggestions strengthen their creativity for changes.
By participating in the CERN master class, students learn about scientific discoveries from the front of science. Incorporating this knowledge expands their worldview and develops the imagination of the students as a whole. Knowledge gives them confidence, strength and opportunity to change the world.
The master class enables students to discuss scientific issues among themselves, develops their analytical thinking skills, critical attitudes to the problems encountered in the modern understanding of physics for the universe. The discovery of the Higgs boson was a great confirmation of the Standard Model - a major model in particle physics and their interactions. However, many open questions still remain. For example: Why does the matter we know make up only 5% of the matter in the universe, the other 95% is supposed to be a dark matter for which we still do know nothing; can microscopic black holes be produced on the Big Hadron Collider, whose possible existence can clarify the fundamental question of more than four space-time dimensions; are there tunnels in space-time.
The master class will inspire students to ask questions and solve new and interesting scientific issues. Question to the students:
Choose the firts image below to get a larger version for close inspection. Can you locate the "missing momentum" vector in each of these events? Look closely at the curvature of the "other" track in each. Which is most likely the decay of a W+? a W-? The short green track in Event A indicates an electron. The longer red track in Event B which penetrates out to the red boxes indicates a muon.
Create
The students do measurements on data from an LHC experiment at CERN. They make their own inquiries, do research, think analytically, draw conclusions and discuss their results in a video conference with CERN scientists and participants from other countries like in a real international collaboration. They create results and gain deeper knowledge.
The specificity of CERN's master class is that students make measurements based on real-time data from the ATLAS, CMS, and ALICE experiments. They analyze the data they receive, carry out research, get new results, and make discoveries. To actively participate they are willing to expand their knowledge by visiting libraries, research sites, by getting acquainted with scientific literature, by initiating discussions with each other and with their teachers. Students work in a setting such as CERN, so the acquired knowledge is more lasting and broadens their outlook. Students have mentors who are Bulgarian scientists working at CERN. They introduce to the students in detail the actual measurement methodology and guide them throughout the measurement process. Finally the results are discussed together.
The master class inspires the students' interest in natural sciences, the students' desire to continue their careers in the field of physics, and particularly in the field of particle physics.
Here are the steps for the students to follow when doing the mesearments acooding to CERN LHC experiments.
For more details the students are advised to consult the following links:
http://alice.physicsmasterclasses.org/alice-exercise-en-2013.pdf
http://atlas.physicsmasterclasses.org/en/index.htm
http://cms.physicsmasterclasses.org/cms.html
http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-public/en/LHCb-outreach/masterclasses/en/
Share
After collecting the results from the measurments and discussing with the mentors the students will present and share the results in a video conference with scientists from CERN and participants from other coutries in the Master class. They discuss their resuts in a video confrence like in a real scientific collaboration.
After the Master class the teacher will ask the students to prepare presentations about their participation and the mesearments they have done, the results they have obtained and reported. The students will share their experience with their classmates at school, with their parents, with their relatives, their acquaintancies, with their friends and via on-line portals.
https://atlas.physicsmasterclasses.org/videos/warum.mp4
http://atlas.physicsmasterclasses.org/videos/warum.mp4
