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Holy Comforter Episcopal School Students Go On An International Journey through Switzerland’s CERN Laboratory
Holy Comforter Episcopal School’s middle school students experienced a special opportunity on Friday, January 29th as they went on a virtual tour of the CERN Laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. CERN, otherwise known as the European Council for Nuclear Research was founded in 1954 and sits near the France/Switzerland border. The laboratory is the largest physics lab in the world and was established as a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe. Though CERN was created to investigate and understand the inside of an atom, the organization has vastly expanded as our knowledge of matter has broadened. Physicists and engineers at CERN are now probing the fundamental structure of the universe as they use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles.
Last year, 8th Grade students connected with physicists at the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) portion of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to learn about the experiments that were underway as scientist learn more about the particles that make up our universe. This year, students connected with another part of the LHC, ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS), and learned about the what type of experiments they conduct.
During the tour, students learned about the inner workings of the lab with their tour guide physicist Dr. Steven Goldfarb, a physicist with the University of Michigan who has been a part of the team which designed detection software for ATLAS. They were given live feed access to the underground lab and were able to see the ATLAS(A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS), a large instrument where protons (particles) are collided at virtually the speed of light to provide insights into the fundamental laws of nature. These collisions are caught on camera through highly sensitive equipment to help scientists answer questions such as: What is the Universe really made of and what forces act within it? And what gives everything substance? At the end of the hour-long tour, students asked several questions.
Davis coordinated the tour with fellow HCES teachers who were receptive to giving students this unique opportunity. What resulted is an incredible journey for Holy Comforter students.
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As a follow-up, on March 4, Dr. Harrison Prosper, FSU Professor, Physicist and CMS Collaboration Team member will speak with students about the recent confirmation of gravitational waves. Gravitational waves were first theorized by Albert Einstein approximately 100 years ago. Recent technological advances all researchers to confirm this theory. Dr. Prosper will also hold a Q&A session with students allowing them to ask questions.
As part of Holy Comforter’s STEM program, students have been studying Chemistry learning about the 5 states of matter, the building blocks of all matter, and how those components interact to create different types of matter. The virtual tour gave students the opportunity to learn from scientists and physicists currently working at CERN, developing a deeper understanding of the curriculum taught in their classroom each day. Holy Comforter’s middle school science and math teacher Lance Davis was the one to reach out to the laboratory, exploring unique learning opportunities for his students.
Davis coordinated the tour with fellow HCES teachers who were receptive to giving students this unique opportunity. What resulted is an incredible journey for Holy Comforter students.
Holy Comforter Episcopal School is a top-rated private, Episcopal, coed school for PreK-8th Grade students located in Tallahassee, Florida.
