An exciting Opportunity to

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New National competition for 2008-9 Cascading
more Particle Physics into schools colleges
STFC

• An exciting Opportunity to.
• Enhance your Physics studies
  
  Develop Key Communication Skills
• Make personal links with Research staff at a
  leading University Win money to
  help finance a trip to CERN

• What is involved?
• Groups of 2-4 A Level or GCSE students are
  invited, with support from their teachers, to
  prepare a
• - short, but interesting
  stimulating, video relating to particle physics
• - lasting 3-4 minutes
• - aimed at a particular
  specified age group (your choice!)
• The videos will then be judged by a team from the
  University Particle Physics experts and
  teachers
• - Prizes of 400 will be
  awarded for the best 10 entries submitted.(to
  help fund CERN visits)
• Prize winners will be invited to an event at the
  University to collect their prizes in June/July
  2009
• - Lunch with Particle
  Physics researchers students
• - Discussions with
  academics
• - Live video link to
  researchers at CERN
• Winning videos will be uploaded onto the web and
  schools will be invited to use them to introduce
  concepts in the classroom
• Please see enclosed information sheet for
  details of competition rules and procedures.

IF YOUR SCHOOL IS INTERESTED IN TAKING
PART.
PLEASE RETURN THE ENCLOSED FORM ASAP!!
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In 2009, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the
Worlds most powerful particle accelerator, will
be running experiments at CERN in Geneva.
The experiments bring together thousands of
scientists from dozens of countries - including
the Particle Physics group at the University of
Birmingham.
LHC Tunnel
The biggest detectors ever built will be
investigating the origin of mass and studying the
fundamental particles that were present at the
beginning of the Universe..
Possible ATLAS event
ALICE Detector
Particle Physics - What do we already
know? What will be discovered next??
A world-wide computing Grid will be used to sort
and analyse the vast amount of data collected in
the experiments - selecting interesting events
will be like looking for 1 person in a thousand
World populations one years data from the LHC
would fill a stack of CDs 20km high!
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Competition information rules

• A competing team will consist of 2-4 students (AS
  or A2 or GCSE students or mixed), and each team
  member must make a recognisable contribution to
  the video presentation either by appearance or
  preparation of content.
• The video presentation must last 3-4 minutes in
  total.
• The video presentation could include a Power
  point element, live demonstrations, drama,
  original computer animations or whatever you
  think works the choice is wide open!
• It could be serious or humorous BUT MUST CONVEY
  ACCURATE PHYSICS INFORMATION.
• There will be a website set up by University
  students to access and an e-mail support system
  for any advice or questions.
• You will need to send in
• - a CD or USB memory stick with copies of
  your video presentation
• - details of the students who
  compiled/starred in the video their school year
  etc
• - details of the school / college etc
• 
  specify the age of the student audience the video
  is aimed at.
• 
  
  to reach us by March 27th 2009

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• Your video presentation should be on one of the
  following topics
• -Whats in a proton?
• -Cosmic Rays are they cosmic? Are they
  rays?
• - How are particles accelerated?
• - If we can not see particles, how do we
• know they are there?
• - Why do we collide particles together?
• - The electron is it really fundamental?
• - What are neutrinos and how do we detect
  them?
• - How are forces transmitted between
  particles?
• - The BIG BANG linking particle physics
  with cosmology
• - What do we mean by DARK MATTER?
• - What is ANTIMATTER?
• - Medical applications of accelerators
• 
  or submit your own idea
  for approval!!

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Judging CriteriaAll presentations will be judged
on hitting the correct level for the specified
audience and on the originality/innovation of the
video produced

• Knowledge of the subject matter and evidence of
  research (20)
• Quality of video presentation we dont expect
  professional quality but it should be
  clear/audible/easy to follow (20)
• Originality/innovation (20)
• Audience appeal is it interesting and
  captivating? (20)
• Pace and variety of methods used to get the key
  messages across (20)
• NB you should not copy paste material
  wholesale from the web or any other source. Any
  photographs etc used should be acknowledged on
  the entry details form.