YEAR 13 PHYSICS TRIP TO CERN

On 5th March, the Year 13 physics students travelled to Geneva with Mrs Sheehy and Mrs Moutell to learn about particle accelerators and particle physics. The highlight of the trip was meeting up for lunch with CERN Scientist and SMOGG, Kate Kahle (Nee Bradshaw), who visited our school back in November. Amongst other fascinating places, she took us on an exclusive behind the scenes tour of CERN including visiting the lecture theatre where the discovery of the Higgs Boson was first announced.

Sachit, Year 13 writes: ‘I found our trip to CERN to be a very exciting and informative trip. We got the opportunity to enter the Antimatter Factory and ask our guides questions about how everything worked - and my guide was particularly enthusiastic and was a great communicator. We were also able to see other parts of the facility like some of the offices and the CERN Data Centre. The people at CERN come from many different backgrounds and countries - and at one point, when we were looking at a display case containing a Cosmic Ray detector, we ran into its inventor! We also took part in a workshop where we made our own cloud chambers and got to see the trails left by the particles in cosmic rays as they whizzed through our chambers. The exhibitions at CERN are also quite fun - especially because a lot of them were activities that needed multiple people to work together. We also had time to explore some of Geneva in the afternoons/evenings. As well as walking by Lake Geneva, we also took boat rides across it which I particularly enjoyed’.