Grade 10 student Carmen Wong is visiting TRIUMF for 5 weeks. She is at TRIUMF as part of the Emerging Aboriginal Scholars Summer Camp put on by the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences.
This week at TRIUMF, I worked for Dr. Stanley Yen. There is another student working with Dr. Yen as well. His name is Wyatt Gronnemose and he just graduated from high school. On Monday, Marcello brought me to Dr. Yen. He was in a lecture with Wyatt. After the lecture about Tc-99m, I introduced myself while we walked to get Wyatt’s lab coat. I had to fill out some paperwork so I could get my own card to get past the gates into the part of TRIUMF with the machines and experiments. Before we went in, Dr. Yen showed me the cloud chamber. He explained how it worked and how to tell which type of particle made each path shown in the cloud chamber. He showed me around TRIUMF while Wyatt worked on his project. First, he showed me some pictures on the wall and explained how the cyclotron worked. After that, we went to see the cyclotron (or the concrete blocks surrounding the cyclotron) and the standing paperclips. That was pretty cool; how paper clips could stand up by themselves because of the magnets from the cyclotron. I had to leave then, so we would finish the tour on Wednesday because Dr. Yen would be gone Tuesday.
On Tuesday, I worked with Wyatt for Chris Hearty, a proferssor from UBC, because Dr. Yen wasn’t there. We organized some cables. Someone was talking to us about on paper vs. real life. On paper, everything can be perfect. Every single measurement will be exact, but really, that would be impossible to do. Some measurements will be slightly off, so when you design it or collect data, you must account for these measurements. He explained how a drift chamber worked, then we found Chris. After we finished with the cables, I got to see the experiment Wyatt was working on for Dr. Yen. That was what I did on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, I found Dr. Yen and he finished off my tour. He explained to me how everything worked and what it was used for and we went back around to where we were on Monday so I could take pictures. After we finished, he brought me to Wyatt’s experiment and had me take a couple pictures for him. He then gave me and Wyatt a lesson on neutrinos before I had to leave. That was my second week at TRIUMF.
-- Written by Carmen Wong, PIMS student