Read our school visit diaries!
11 - 12 October 2007
Geschwister Scholl Gymnasium (GSG) Pulheim, Germany
Katrin Goldammer
On my first SET-Routes trip, I visited my former high school in Pulheim. It was there that I received my 'Abitur' in 1998.
BESSY Berlin Please click on the photo for a larger version. |
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For the SET-Routes activity, I had contacted my former maths teacher in August this year. We figured that it would make most sense if I came to the school after the autumn break, which fitted well with my personal schedule. While the teacher got in touch with the other teachers and arranged my visit, I hooked up with the BESSY Public Relations Department to assemble a collection of fun science experiments that could be done in the classroom. I ended up with a small box of things to hand around and with a big bundle of slides illustrating the world of accelerator physics.
When I arrived at my old school on Thursday morning, 11 October 2007, Renate handed me a list of five classes that I would be visiting that day. They ranged from the 7th to 10th grade, so the students were aged 13 to 17. From then on, I started a hectic run from classroom to classroom. I did not come with a particular programme to follow, so basically I just accompanied the teachers into their classrooms and then took over. I introduced myself, wrote my name on the board and gave the kids my email address - just in case they wanted to get in touch afterwards. Then I told them that we were not going to follow any specific lesson plan, but that I'd just like to tell them a little bit about myself and my work. I guess it was worth mentioning that I had also graduated from the same school, because the students seemed very pleased to hear that - otherwise I guess they would have kept wondering who was visiting them!
Cogwheel Please click on the photo for a larger version. |
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Having said that, I usually went on to explain how I moved from Pulheim to Berlin to study and then to work, or I started off talking about the place where I work and tried to give them an introduction to BESSY. I had prepared slides with birds' eye and side views of the storage ring (BESSY looks round on pictures), and I tried to give them an idea about accelerators in general. Of course, mentioning CERN and the huge LHC ring was the most impressive piece of information in this context. In some cases, this extended into a discussion of Dan Brown's popular novels, or led to an introduction on elementary particle physics and its relevance to science.
At the latest, this was also the point when the students asked the "What the heck is this good for?"-question. This gave me the opportunity to do some experiments. I had brought a few things to do. For instance, I had prepared some experiments with light, either with a laser or the simple light bulb in the overhead projector.
The laser experiment involves a green laser pointer and a plain piece of fabric. If the laser beam is directed through the fabric, a diffraction image can be seen on the wall. From the image, a scientist can easily calculate the inner structure of the fabric. Different kinds of fabric produce different diffraction images. This was supposed to give the students an idea of the kind of investigations one can do with light. In analogy, at BESSY, we use synchrotron radiation to probe all sorts of material, biological samples, etc.
I also brought polarising foil which can be used to do two neat things: 1) it can be placed on the overhead projector and rotated over another piece of polarising foil: this gives a neat variable filter, depending on the angle between the two pieces; 2) if a see-through plastic object, for example a ruler, is placed between the two sheets, tension lines in the material become visible. This is a fun experiment because two students can get involved: one to hold the foil, the other one to hold the objects between the foil. Tension lines are interesting, because they relate to something that makes sense: testing the properties of material, especially used material. This may be linked to testing old screws in engines of airplanes, etc. It's not exactly what we do, but it goes to show that light can be used for various interesting experiments.
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Last, I brought a number of micro-part samples which were manufactured at BESSY. These include tiny cog wheels which can be used in little motors or gears (I showed some pictures, relating the scales to a bee or a coffee bean). It wasn't easy conveying the idea of 'designing things on a small scale', but I tried to get the point across that it's generally beneficial to make mechanical objects smaller; for example, hearing aids and pacemakers. Also, to everyone's comfort, computer towers have shrunk to the size of laptops, and a mobile phone now contains a phone, camera and an mp3-player.
Talking about all of that and explaining more about the general world of science (e.g. I had a slide showing a map of the world highlighting all the places that I had visited during my PhD, and these are A LOT of places) usually filled the entire hour (a lesson in Germany is 45 minutes long). After that, I had to rush to get all my samples back together and run to the next classroom.
On Friday, I visited 6 classes in a row, from grade 7 to grade 9.
Some of the students' recurring questions were:
- Why do you (at BESSY) do all this?
- What's all that technical effort good for?
- Is your lab similar to the 'Forschungszentrum Jülich'? (This was asked because Pulheim is rather close to Jülich and the Nobel Prize was just given to a physicist at FZ Jülich the day before.)
- Is it safe working so close to a source of radioactivity?
- What would happen if somebody got trapped inside the accelerator and it was turned on?
- How much does an accelerator cost?
- How much do you earn?
But I was also asked some questions that gave me the impression the students were actually contemplating SET careers themselves:
- What do you have to study if you want to work in this field?
- Which subjects did you do for your 'Abitur'?
- Is there a minimum grade to enter university and to get a degree?
In summary, visiting the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium was a fun experience. I learned a lot about science communication and I hope that I made a small impact on the students. My goal was not only to entertain them with physical phenomena, but also to let them know how much effort we put into our research and how many challenges we face every day - but also that I definitely think it's worth it.