1. 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 New National competition for 2008-9 Cascading more Particle Physics into schools & colleges STFC 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 £300 will be awarded for the best 10 entries submitted. 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!!

2. Concorde (15 Km) Mt. Blanc (4.8 Km) In 2009, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the World’s most powerful particle accelerator, will be running experiments at CERN in Geneva. 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…….. The experiments bring together thousands of scientists from dozens of countries - including the Particle Physics group at the University of Birmingham. 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 year’s data from the LHC would fill a stack of CDs 20km high! Possible ATLAS event ALICE Detector Particle Physics - What do we already know? What will be discovered next?? LHC Tunnel

3. 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 27 th 2009

4. Your video presentation should be on one of the following topics: -What’s 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!!

5. Judging Criteria All 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 don’t 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.