CERN School Students’ LabModern Physics in µCosm

Project Overview

Overview• The Project(s)

• Goal

• Building Issues

• VERY VERY VERY Preliminary Planning

The Project(s)• Originally one Project (started pushing for it in 1999)

• Split into three Sub-Projects

• The µCosm School Students’ Lab• Microcosm Gardens• UA1 Central Detector Display

Situation• µCosm is located in building 143

µCosm School Students’ LabProject 1

Goal• Present modern physics – education in this direction is

part of the CERN mandate.

• The School Students’ Lab will

• provide a hands-on lab area for visiting (school) students

• display and present modern physics to a more general public

• extend the educational programme

µCosm• currently the complete building is used as exhibition space• most platforms are made of concrete

µCosm School Students’ Lab – General Idea

School Lab

15.7

0 m

67.13 mm12.60 m

µCosm School Students’ Lab – General Idea cont’d

What is a “school students’ lab”?• In the recent past, many schools have faced

the problem that out of financial reasons, only a very limited number of experiments could be acquired and performed in school.

• This lead to a wave of “school students’ labs”, where these experiments and even more modern ones are made available and can be performed together with the personnel there.

Prototype School Students’ Lab Activity• standard school student lab activity is planned for 2.5 hrs• standard ingredients:

• general and safety introduction• 2 experiment blocks à 50 mins

• 5’ intro• 40’ experiment• 5’ discussion

• break of 15 minsbetween

• final discussion• done in

• 3 experiments• ×3 groups• ×3 participants/group

Safety Considerations – Experiments• Voltages

• nearly all experiments are made for schools according to the prevailing standards

• CRT• vacuum glass tube

• Gasses• LN2• dry ice• propane

• Radioactive Material• Rutherford

• source in apparatus• Cloud Chamber

• different sources• , ,

• Natural Radiation• different sources

• , , • different materials

Microcosm GardensProject 2

Microcosm GardensRECEPTION

33

5

143

662

4

43 0

431

430

430

433

431

43 2

436

50.00 m

length of fence ~117 mtwo CERN card access doors

UA1 Central Detector DisplayProject 3

UA1 Central Detector Display

VERY VERY VERY Preliminary Planning

• Now• Collecting Issues

• Fall 2012• Clean up area in 143• Store UA1 Central Detector in 185

• End 2012• Build partitioning wall

• Winter 2012• Install services

• Spring 2013• Install lab systems

X-Ray Experiments X-Ray spectra

Material analysis

Radiography MediPix

radiation-tested by RP

Experiment – High TC Superconductor

Record the voltage drop across a superconductor with varying temperature.

Measurement by dipping a probe with superconductor and platinum resistor into a bath of liquid nitrogen.

Handling of nitrogen by presenter. Handling of probe by students.

Experiment – Self-built Cloud Chamber Visualize charged tracks.

dry ice for cooling IPA (C3H8O) for vapors

seehttp://teachers/document/cloud-final.pdf

Experiment – Photoelectric Effect Measure the kinetic energy of the electrons as a function of

the frequency of the light. Determine Planck’s constant h.

Measurement using a mercurylamp, filters, and an op-amp.

Hot mercury lamp.

Experiment – Rutherford Experiment To record the direct counting rate Nd of particles scattered

by a gold foil as function of the angle θ. To determine the corrected counting rates N with respect to

the scattering distribution in space. To validate the “Rutherford’s scattering formula“

Measurement of count rate.

within plastic vessel emitter handled rarely by technical staff plastic vessel evacuated (to min 50 Pa)

Experiment – Radiation Look at different materials and their radioactivity.

school experiment sources different materials, e.g. sands, watches, dust-bags

Measurement of count rate.

sources and other materialshandled by presenter and participants

Experiment – Electron Diffraction Determination of wavelength of the electrons Verification of the de Broglie’s equation Determination of lattice plane spacings of graphite

Measurement through ob-servation of ring radius.

high voltage

Experiment – Fine Beam Tube () Study of the deflection of electrons in a magnetic field into

a circular orbit. Determination of the magnetic field B as a function of the

acceleration potential U of the electrons at a constant radius r.

Determination of the specificcharge of the electron.

Measurement through ob-servation of beam radius.

nothing specific

Experiment – Franck-Hertz To record a Franck-Hertz curve for neon. To measure the discontinuous energy emission of free electrons for

inelastic collision. To interpret the measurement results as representing discrete energy

absorption by neon atoms. To observe the Ne-spectral

lines resulting from the electron-collision excitation of neon atoms.

To identify the luminance phenomenon as layers with a high probability of excitation.

nothing specific