Wanted: Moderators for International Masterclasses in Particle Physics

The International Masterclasses in Particle Physics give high school students from around the world the opportunity to become particle physicists for a day. CERN physicists are invited to participate in next year’s Masterclass programme, to be held from 11 February to 23 March 2016.


 

The International Masterclasses in Particle Physics conclude with a video conference, where students from different countries connect with moderators at CERN to discuss their results.  


During a Masterclass, high-school students work with recent data from the LHC experiments under the supervision of physicists. For example, students can rediscover the Z boson or the structure of the proton, reconstruct strange particles or measure the lifetime of the D0 particle. “Students get a taste of how modern physics research works by working directly with particle physicists and using real LHC data,” says Uta Bilow from TU Dresden, coordinator of the International Masterclasses programme.

To simulate a real scientific working environment, each Masterclass ends with a video conference, where student groups from different countries connect with two moderators at CERN to combine and discuss their results. They can also pick their moderators’ brains in a Q&A section. The video conference ends with a multiple choice quiz on particle physics.

In 2015, 47 CERN physicists volunteered to moderate the video conferences. Paul Laycock, a former moderator, especially enjoyed the Q&A part: “The best part is answering their questions and seeing how happy and excited they are to be talking to physicists at CERN!”


If you are interested in joining the Masterclass moderator team in 2016, please contact Uta Bilow (uta.bilow@cern.ch).