TRIUMF has been at 4004 Wesbrook Mall for over 40 years. What’s changed the most is the surrounding community: new homes, new businesses, and new research neighbours. No longer are we alone in the woods of UBC’s endowment lands. To stay an engaged and active part of the growing community, TRIUMF outdid itself this September with local events. We’ve been so busy sharing the lab and the science we do, that there hasn’t been enough time between organizing and carrying out events to actually write about them. This article covers two of the many outreach events that happened this September.
First off, on the September 8th, the University Neighbourhoods Association held its 6th Annual Barn Raising at the Old Barn Community Centre on the UBC campus. This year’s theme was Good ol’ Rock ‘n Roll, and in keeping with tradition, it was a riot of a time. There was live music, face painting, a dunk tank game, Elvis impersonations (see the photo to the right), free barbeque and ice cream, a pie eating contest, and many booths, including of course, TRIUMF’s. You can see some great photos on The Old Barn’s Facebook page. Thank you UNA volunteer Edward Chang for the two beautiful photos you see here.
The goal of the Barn Raising is to bring the community members together and have a good time, so the TRIUMF team showed up and did just that. It was amazing to hear how many students and other community members had no idea that they had a national nuclear and particle physics laboratory right down the street. We made sure to rectify this situation. Due to the recent media flood surrounding CERN’s big Higgs announcement, the words “particle accelerator” lit up everyone’s eyes as they stopped by our table. The large TV monitor displaying animations of collision events inside the Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS detector drew people in, and the TRIUMF volunteers and staff manning the booth provided all sorts of demonstrations and information about our facility, what we do, and answered many generally science-y questions. There were a good number of young experts that knew as much about particle physics as we did, so bravo to the UNA: There are many future physicists in the neighbourhood!
As part of the booth, we brought the Cloud Chamber from the TRIUMF front lobby that allows us to “see” cosmic rays from space. There was also an experiment where kids (or adults) could dive in and get their hands dirty. By mixing cornstarch and water and placing it on a speaker, we saw the effects of vibrations on this non-Newtonian fluid. Check out this YouTube video to see it for yourself (it’s amazing).
Overall, the event was a success! Loaded up with enthusiasm we were able to convey to people who we are and what we do, just down the street from them.
Secondly, was the Wesbrook Village Festival. On September 22nd, the Wesbrook Village community put together this event to strengthen the community ties of participants and exhibitors alike. Naturally TRIUMF, being just down the road, is a part of this community, so we joined in and set up our booth.
This time it was less an informational booth, and more of a “come with us and we’ll give you an awesome tour” booth. Of course there were plenty of take-home pamphlets and on-screen ATLAS detector displays, and guests were encouraged to sign up for the two TRIUMF tours being conducted that day. The Mahoney and Sons Public House was kind enough to offer their 6-seater, electric golf cart to aid in ferrying the tour participants back and forth in style.
The tours booked up quickly and the participants were awed and amazed. One woman compared it to the tour she and her family had of CERN earlier in the year. They couldn’t believe that the TRIUMF tour brings people right up close and personal with the lab’s various experiments and machinery; they didn’t let her do that at CERN! Of course, the old party trick with the paper clips and the main cyclotron magnet was a big hit with everyone. It is nice to have some physics that you can play with and actually see!
Judging by the crowds at each, both festivals were big successes. For our own part, we were able broadcast our presence and inform our neighbours who we are and what we do. Many people listened with rapt attention to an explanation of the workings of the cyclotron, and many others took the tour with wide eyes. From a “get to know your neighbour standpoint.” It was a job well done.
Finally, these events would not have worked without a stellar team of TRIUMF staff and volunteers—a big thank-you to everyone who helped make it happen. Congratulations!
-- by Chris Mann, Outreach/Tours Assistant at TRIUMF