Ms Lizelle Swanepoel, the head of science at Saheti School, recently returned from the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).
CERN is located on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, and houses the world’s largest particle collider (the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider) in an underground tunnel 27 km in circumference.
CERN does research on the basic constituents of matter by colliding beams of protons at the unprecedented energy of 14 TeV with a speed just under the speed of light. Fundamental particles produced in these collisions are studied with the aid of huge detectors. CERN is the birthplace of the World Wide Web, the touch screen and PET imaging sensors. The LHC is famous for its discovery of the Higgs boson.
Reason for the visit to CERN:
Ms Swanepoel was invited to attend a three-week residential programme at CERN and get a taste of frontier research in modern physics. Participants in the programme were selected from 32 countries. She was one of 50 teachers who took part from July 5 to 25 and the only teacher from the African continent. Ms Swanepoel is grateful to Saheti School for affording her the time to attend the HST course and also funding part of her trip to CERN. The University of Cape Town funded her accommodation in Switzerland.
CERN HST Programme and purpose
Ms Anna Botha, the head of marketing at Saheti, said CERN HST is a teachers’ programme established in 1998, which takes place once a year. It is aimed at helping science teachers bring modern physics into the classroom and motivate their students to study science at tertiary level, with a specific focus on the specialised fields of particle physics, cosmology, astrophysics and engineering. This is open to high school science teachers from all CERN member and non-member states, subject to funding.
Innovation and collaboration at CERN
Ms Swanepoel said the grand scale of innovation at CERN is impressive. After its discovery of the Higgs boson a few years ago, the second run of experiments started this year.
Since then they have discovered another new particle called the pentaquark.
“I feel extremely privileged to have been at CERN during that time, attending a lecture on the pentaquark just days after its discovery,” said Ms Swanepoel.
“The two large LHC experiments at CERN, ATLAS and CMS, work separately but in collaboration. ATLAS was the first to confirm their discovery of the Higgs. There are many other experiments going on at CERN, including ISOLDE (the radioactive ion beam facility ), COMPASS (which looks at the structure of hadrons by using beams from the Super Proton Synchrotron), AMS (which analyses data from NASA’s international space station to look for dark matter, antimatter and missing matter), ALICE (a large ion collider experiment) and the AD (antimatter factory) to name a few,” said Ms Swanepoel.
The feeling of collaboration and discovery is tangible at CERN, with scientists from all over the world, including South Africa, working together all year round.
“It was a hub of activity while I was there, with so many summer students (post-doc) from across the world involved in experiments. Young and old, all contribute to physics here. It is not uncommon to see really old people shuffling through the corridors, who still make an active contribution to high energy physics. I had never seen a Nobel Prize winner in my life until I went to CERN, where it is not uncommon to see several in one day. This is truly the most inspiring place on Earth from a scientific point of view,” said Ms Swanepoel.
Her programme consisted of two, three-hour lectures in particle physics, cosmology and astrophysics daily, visits to facilities and experiments, workshops, hands-on labs such as cloud chamber experiments, time spent on chosen projects for presentation at the end of the course and social events like the Geneva treasure hunt and several official dinners. The programme also included Q&A sessions with LHC experiment leaders and engineers, and a special session with CERN’s director general Mr Rolf Heuer in the CERN council chamber, where they discussed the future of CERN, physics education, CERN in the media and films, educating the press, building trust in science and handing over the reins in 2016.
“What a thrill that was. I also had the privilege to have met CERN’s next director general, Ms Fabiola Gianotti, who will be the first woman to head CERN. She is a true inspiration,” she said.
At the end of the stay, each participant had to present their project in respective work groups to the HST group and lecturers. Projects ranged from detection of cosmic rays such as muons, LHC data analysis, medical application of CERN technologies, the importance of girls and women in Physics, educational games, comparing physics curricula from across the globe, building an MX-10 pixel detector, a Paul trap and a prototype of the ATLAS detector. Lizelle and her work group had hours of fun building a working prototype of the ATLAS detector’s magnetic system.
The role of teachers and responsibility to CERN:
She said after attending an HST course, one becomes an ambassador for CERN in promoting the research being done there. CERN HST inspires teachers to raise and maintain the interest of students in science and specifically modern physics. CERN recognises the teacher’s ability to instill a feeling of mystery and discovery potential in their students, which can motivate them to study science and engineering at university. “I feel privileged to have attended a course at CERN and am eager to promote what they do at this extraordinary place by sharing it with pupils and teachers alike. This programme is the ideal platform for equipping teachers to inspire and prepare our future scientists and engineers,” said Ms Swanepoel.
Value added to the classroom:
Ms Botha said experiences such as Lizelle’s are part of the progressive approach by Saheti towards education. She said in today’s fast-changing world, it is no longer enough to teach the curriculum and produce good results.
“At Saheti, teachers are encouraged to stay at the cutting edge of research and training in order to add value to the pupil’s classroom experience,”said Ms Botha.
“Saheti’s Executive Headmaster, Mr Warwick Taylor and Director of Academics Ms Daniela Pitt, work together to ensure teachers are encouraged to grow in their respective fields. They understand the value of extraordinary opportunities like CERN in enhancing the educational offering,” she said.
“Ms Swanepoel’s initiative to apply for an international course of this calibre, at the world’s most progressive physics institute, was aimed at enriching the experience of her pupils. She points out that science at Saheti is benefitting from a combination of factors, including inspired staff members who deliver high quality teaching, as a result of professional development opportunities such as CERN HST,” said Ms Botha.
She said Saheti pupils have shown a growing interest in science, evidenced by their achievements at Science Expos over the past few years since Ms Swanepoel became head of science. This year, 17 medals were scooped by Saheti’s high school participants for their projects in the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, which took place at Wits University. According to Ms Swanepoel, students develop scientific and innovation skills by competing in such events.
Connections and collaboration:
“During my time at CERN, I have had the most scintillating experience, one that I will cherish for a lifetime and which I will share with students in years to come. I hope to take a group of my students back to CERN in the near future. Connections made with CERN scientists and teachers from so many different countries have been most valuable in terms of combined projects for our classrooms, which will expose our students to CERN’s spirit of collaboration. It would greatly benefit science education in SA if more teachers could visit CERN and discover the meaning of collaboration and internationalism from its scientists and engineers. These qualities need to be fostered in our students, which I hope to achieve thanks to CERN HST 2015,” said Ms Swanepoel.
- Supplied by Saheti School.
