High School Students become Particle Physicists for a Day

ICCUB hosted a Particle Physics Masterclass past 8th and 22nd of March, where 186 students from all over Catalonia were invited to assist. The participants left school for a day to dive into the fascinating field of particle physics. 

Particle physics is one of the most important emerging fields in science. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC in summer 2012 led to a large public interest in understanding particle physics. Physicists have continued to study the Higgs, search for new particles, and understand the mysteries of dark matter, neutrinos, and more.

In this editions, the scientists from ICCUB gave masterclasses during the morning. Professors Eugeni Graugés and Lluis Garrido welcomed the students to the Faculty of Physics early in the morning, where they introduced them to the world of the tiniest bits of matter and the accelerators and detectors used to study them. 

Following the lunch break, the students performed a practical exercise using real data. As the basic idea of the program is to let students work as much as possible like real scientists, they used current data obtained from experiments at the forefront of research. In connection with physicists at CERN and other student groups from different countries, they discussed their results. 

The program was concluded with a guided visit to the different laboratories where physicists’ work, which allowed the students to discover the different research lines, integrated in ICCUB and see some of the latest equipment that researchers use. 

This workshop is part of an annual program called International Masterclasses, organized by the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG). Scientists at over 200 universities and laboratories in more than 50 countries host several Masterclasses at their home institutions. 

For further information please read International Masterclasses