Evelyn Petra Michal John Carl Pierre Daniel VISITS GROUP Evelyn Petra Michal John Carl Pierre Daniel

Motivation and Method Why a visits group? Experiments are about to start! How do we recommend the “Best”? Select criteria. Rank criteria. Survey criteria. Compare criteria.

The Criteria

CERN CONTROL CENTRE Controls and monitors all accelerator beams

CERN CONTROL CENTRE Positive: Good posters and displays. Great place to have the introduction. Plenty of space for a group of 20+. Nice overview of a real control room. Pull up info on screens in real time to explain what goes on. Interesting for IT students. Negative: Good guide is needed to maximize learning potential. The school teacher would need to be prepared in advance to help guide the students. Bus needed for visit. Improvements: Perhaps display cabinets to show vital / exciting LHC parts, models like ones near cafeteria and models of tunnel and experiments would enthuse students.

DELPHI A decommissioned LEP detector still in the cavern near LHCb

DELPHI Positive: Big wow factor. Nice exposition. Students can touch. Students can see a real detector. Negative: Group must be divided. Far away from Microcosm. Bus needed for the visit. Frustrating because it is out of date and the new detector is just behind the wall! Improvements: TV screen or big posters about comparison of how much bigger the new detectors are.

CAST A solar telescope searching for axions (dark matter candidate)

CAST Negative: Needs a very good guide to explain. Positive: Display material is of advanced level. It is a little too difficult to understand and away from main stream physics. No chance to see physicists working as it is remote controlled and only active at sunrise / sunset. Large “telescope” but there are much more impressive optical telescopes around the world. Not really a visit but a viewing platform therefore time here will be very short. Cannot be the main part of a CERN visit. Bus needed. Positive: Close to Delphi. Large solar telescope. Get to see LHC dipole magnet. Many students are interested in dark matter. Improvements: Provide a good guide to explain the connections to research. Make displays easier to understand.

SM 18 A testing & assembly facility for LHC components

SM 18 Improvements: Positive: Nice exposition. Students can touch exhibits. Group can be together. Can see how magnets are put together and tested. Real industrial wow factor. Interesting for potential engineering students. Negative: Bus transportation needed. May be empty in the future? Improvements: Displays need explanations not only labels.

PS/LEIR/LINAC Proton / ion injection & initial acceleration for SPS & LHC

PS/LEIR/LINAC Positive: See what an accelerator ring and a linear accelerator looks like. With a good guide there will be lots of things to discuss (boost, curve etc.). Interesting to see how much hydrogen is needed and how it is supplied. You can see tunnel where Linac is located. Negative: Small area at Linac. 3-4 at a time or else it is difficult to hear the guide. Improvements: All the TV-screens should be up and running for tours. Be sure that they show some information (could be of some previous runs). Add posters to the display models of linear accelerators, showing how they work.

Anti-hydrogen factory AD Anti-hydrogen factory

AD Improvements: Positive: Antimatter is in the news and popular imagination. Good to actually see an experiment. Negative: Difficult to understand. Small area makes it difficult to hear guide. Only one poster. Vital to have a good guide. Improvements: Needs some lecture or explanation before going. Need more posters to explain what is happening. Increase tour to see the control room and other experiments. Train guide where to stop and talk.

COMPUTER CENTRE Data storage and internet/grid backbone

COMPUTER CENTRE Improvements: Positive: Big wow factor. Interesting for non-physics students. Close to Microcosm. Students can learn about the GRID. Students can see robots doing their work. Students can see how CERN stores data. No prior physics knowledge needed. Negative: Group must be divided. Noise level is high. Improvements: More explanation on how the GRID works. Create posters and displays on how the world wide web was created. Use the gallery at the start of the visit to get an overview.

TERA Research & development of hadron therapy

TERA Improvements: Positive: Nice posters. Negative: Just posters. May be better to visit a hospital. Improvements: Show factory or lab. Show a video.

MEDIPIX Pixel detector with medical & industrial uses

MEDIPIX Improvements: Positive: Very interesting application of CERN technology outside of basic research. Good that students get to see practical application. Great demo of how alpha and beta particles are detected with the detector. Negative: Room size small. Did not see where circuits are made and/or tested. Improvements: Timeframe might be revised for 30 min each (overview, demo, circuit design). Divide group into three sections and rotate. Show how/where circuits are made in lab and how they are tested. Our criteria were not really tailored to CERN spin-offs so Medipix scored a little lower than might be expected…

The Final Scores

MICROCOSM Improvements: Positive: No prior knowledge needed. Students can play and touch the exhibits. Negative: Small exposition. Old and run-down. Improvements: More interactive exhibits. Exhibits where students could assemble various model parts of an accelerator.

THE GLOBE Improvements: Positive: Impressive building. Negative: Mostly empty at the moment. Improvements: Could be used for the introduction of the tour and as a group gathering spot.

WEB PAGE/VISIT ITINERARIES

WEB PAGE/VISIT ITINERARIES Positive: Information is OK. Good that you can have a half day visit. Negative: Lunches is not served on weekends. No full day visits. Would be good to know what you will see in advance. Improvements: Lunches should be served on weekends if weekend tours are available. Add full day visits or visits on multiple days of different locations for groups that have traveled far. Send itinerary info by email a few days in advance to be able to prepare classes for visits. Add additional comments (just a sentence or two) on the webpage for each site to that can be visited for better understanding of what is to be seen instead of going to individual links. You will get a better overview if it is on the same page.

A Half Day (3 hour) Trip to CERN CCC – LHCb/DELPHI – CAST Meet at Reception Building 33 to meet guide. (15 minutes) Travel to CERN Control Centre. (15 minutes) CCC viewing room for overview of control centre. Students seated for a 20-30 minute film or presentation of CERN and a short question session. (60 minutes) Travel to LHCb/ DELPHI. View poster and model display with guide. Go into the cavern via the elevator. See displays and detector, time for explanations and discussion. (60 minutes) Walk to CAST. Quick look around with a brief explanation from the guide. (15 minutes) Return to Reception Building 33. (15 minutes)

A Half Day (3 hour) Trip to CERN CCC – LHCb/DELPHI – SM 18 Meet at Reception Building 33 to meet guide. (15 minutes) Travel to CERN Control Centre. (15 minutes) CCC viewing room for overview of control centre. Students seated for a 20-30 minute film or presentation of CERN and a short question session. (50 minutes) Travel to LHCb/ DELPHI. View poster and model display with guide. Go into the cavern via the elevator. See displays and detector, time for explanations and discussion. (50 minutes) Travel to SM18. View posters, displays and tour magnet testing area with guide providing explanations. (45 minutes) Return to Reception Building 33. (5 minutes)

A Half Day (3 1/2 hour) Trip to CERN GLOBE – PS/LEAR/LINAC – AD – Microcosm Meet guide at GLOBE for 20-30 minute overview of CERN and tour exhibits. (45 minutes) Travel to PS/LEAR/LINAC via Meyrin site (15 minutes) Visit PS control room, LEAR viewing platform & LINAC (60 minutes) Travel to and tour AD (45 minutes) Travel to Microcosm. Tour the exhibits. (45 minutes)

A Half Day (3 hour) Trip to CERN GLOBE – Computer Centre – AD – Microcosm Meet guide at GLOBE for 20-30 minute overview of CERN and tour exhibits. (45 minutes) Travel to Computer Centre via Meyrin site (15 minutes) Visit Computer Centre starting at the balcony (45 minutes) Travel to and tour AD (45 minutes) Travel to Microcosm. Tour the exhibits. (30 minutes)

A Half Day (3 1/2 hour) Trip to CERN GLOBE/MICROCOSM – Medipix - LHCb/DELPHI Meet guide at GLOBE for 20-30 minute overview of CERN. Tour exhibits at GLOBE/Microcosm. (60 minutes) Travel to Building 14 to tour Medipix. Divide group into 3 sections to rotate among the presentations. (75 minutes) Travel to LHCb/ DELPHI. View poster and model display with guide. Go into the cavern via the elevator. See displays and detector, time for explanations and discussion. (50 minutes) Walk to CAST. Quick look around with a brief explanation from the guide. (15 minutes) Return to Reception Building 33. (10 minutes)

Full Day (6 hour) trip to CERN CCC – LHCb/DELPHI – CAST – SM18 – Lunch - Medipix – GLOBE/MICROCOSM AM Meet at Reception Building 33 to meet guide. (15 minutes) Travel to CERN Control Centre. (15 minutes) CCC viewing room for overview of control centre. Students seated for a 20-30 minute film or presentation of CERN and a short question session. (50 minutes) Travel to LHCb/ DELPHI. View poster and model display with guide. Go into the cavern via the elevator. See displays and detector, time for explanations and discussion. (50 minutes) Walk to CAST. Quick look around with a brief explanation from the guide. (15 minutes) Travel to SM18. View posters, displays and tour magnet testing area with guide providing explanations. (45 minutes)

Full Day (6 hour) trip to CERN CCC – LHCb/DELPHI – CAST – SM18 – Lunch - Medipix – GLOBE/MICROCOSM PM Travel to Restaurant 1 for lunch (75 minutes) Travel to Building 14 to tour Medipix. Divide group into 3 sections to rotate among the presentations. (75 minutes) Travel to and visit GLOBE/Microcosm. (60 minutes)

Future improvements Themed visits Podcasts for visits / wireless microphones & headphones Schools can choose their visit and get pre-visit information pack Worksheets for the visit and for use back at school Webcams / live data feeds Provide more insight into applications and spin-offs from CERN Whole day / multi-day visits More guides to allow more and longer visits Better training for guides in communicating with students and the public

Future HST project? Jobs for 2009… Worksheets for visits Develop more hands on activities in visits Pre-visit information pack Online virtual visit

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