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Educational visits for science students don’t come more inspirational than a trip to the European Organisation for Nuclear Research at CERN in Switzerland. The centre’s use of scientific instruments – including the massive particle accelerators and detectors – literally bring science off the pages of a text book and into the real world. Students on a trip to CERN can watch cutting-edge scientific exploration and experimentation create results in front of their eyes. CERN for Physics Students From the search for ‘dark matter’ to studying how particles interact, the institute is at the very cutting-edge of physics, illustrating to your students just how far their studies can go. Your pupils will get the chance to see the site of the Large Hadron Collider (the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator). The tour guides at the centre will explain how making particles collide together at high speed is helping us to answer the most fundamental questions of physics: why isn’t there a balance of matter and antimatter in the universe, what holds galaxies together, and what can the Higgs boson tell us about particle mass? CERN for Computing Students Educational visits to CERN aren’t all about particles; it’s also the birthplace of the World Wide Web. It was while he was based at the institute in 1989 that British scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the web in order to facilitate the sharing of information between scientific institutes around the world. Berners-Lee, in fact, created the very first web page, dedicated (appropriately enough) to introducing the world to the World Wide Web, at CERN. In April 1993 CERN put the World Wide Web software in the public domain with an open licence, a browser and a library of code, to allow others to expand this fledgling project. Guided Tours The institute is always keen to share its exciting developments and discoveries with students from around the world, playing host to thousands of educational visits each year. The laboratory offers three-hour tours to students with emphasis on elements pre-arranged with teachers to cover any specific subject areas, and include visits to viewing points of ground-level experiments. Get Students Involved As well as the tour students can visit the new S’Cool LAB, a Physics Education Research facility where your pupils will have the opportunity to take part in particle physics experiments for actual research projects. The institute will encourage students to make their own discoveries, as well as giving them the confidence to work scientifically and to interact with members of the scientific community. A visit to CERN could be just what your pupils need to encourage them to make the connection between an interest in the classroom and the world of scientific discovery open to them if they continue their studies. Contact a specialist educational travel tour operator and they will organise all the details, tour requests and accommodation requirements so that you can concentrate on inspiring your class to become the next generation of CERN scientists. Author Plate John Gardiner is the Managing Director of The School Travel Company, a tour operator specialising in educational visits for school and youth groups to the UK, Europe and beyond. As a father and avid traveller, John is very passionate about providing students with valuable and engaging learning experiences outside of the classroom. By sharing his expert advice with teachers, he allows them to inspire their students and bring their studies to life.
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