The 2012 Particle Physics Masterclass was held on Saturday April 16, 2012 with about 40 high school students from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island attending. This is the second year that BC institutions have taken part, with classes being held at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Victoria (UVic). Students learned about the physics of fundamental particles, and then tried their hand at finding them using actual data and analysis tools from the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. The day ended with a videoconference amongst UBC, UVic, and Hampton University in the USA to discuss results. The Particle Physics Masterclass began in Europe in 2005 and has since spread around the globe, incorporating schools from Japan, Canada, China, and the United States.
UBC professor, Colin Gay, who led the event at UBC and said, "It was great to have all the groups working on the same type of analysis this year. … We did go overtime on the conference, but that was because the students had extra questions, so I take that as a really good sign." Professor Gay also confirmed that UBC would continue to take part in the Particle Physics Masterclass in 2013.
Post-doctoral fellow, Lorraine Courneyea, led the event at UVic and noted the positive feedback from the students as one of the highlights of the day. “We had everyone fill out surveys, and flipping through them the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. A few of the students also asked if they could come again next year, and we certainly plan on running this event again.”
The turnout for this year’s Particle Physics Masterclass is similar to last year’s, which was held at UBC and Simon Fraser University (SFU). SFU was unable to participate this year due to issues in relation to the teacher’s strike in British Columbia. TRIUMF Outreach Coordinator, Marcello Pavan, is optimistic that SFU will participate in 2013 and that the Particle Physics Masterclass will continue to grow in the coming years. “Participants are enthusiastic,” Marcello said, “and there are plans to do more Masterclasses, even ones targeted towards teachers.”
-- Written by Jordan Pitcher (Communications Assistant)