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Asked by tulloche to Meirin on 15 Nov 2019.
Question: Great to see you release data for young people, how as a science teacher can we make the complicated world of particle physics accessible for younger pupils - asking as a biology/chemistry teacher who has to teach physics to S1-2 pupils and has some very enthusiastic young children!
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Meirin Oan Evans answered on 15 Nov 2019:
Thank you for your question.
For the ages of about 11-13 I often run an activity called “Build your own universe”. https://www.stem.org.uk/elibrary/resource/31047
If you can get your hands on LEGO, students build bigger and bigger structures to represent how the elements were formed in the Big Bang. So you can link to chemistry and even biology since it gets to carbon!
Comments
Susan commented on :
The Particle Adventure website (https://particleadventure.org/) is also a good resource for younger pupils.
tulloche commented on :
Susan I think I need to look at it too! ha ha
Meirin commented on :
If getting materials into your school is difficult, you could try show pictures of these particle cuddly toys https://www.particlezoo.net/
I make stories for the different particles. For example, the neutrinos look like ninjas because they sneak past all other particles, hardly ever being seen by them. There are billions of neutrinos passing through your pinky fingernail every second. Please let me know if you’d like me to share more stories!
And thank you Susan for another good resource!
tulloche commented on :
so are the neutrinos a bit like gamma rays?
Meirin commented on :
Well… whereas gamma rays may travel a few cm in lead, neutrinos can travel a few light years!