Our Sixth Former pupils discovered more about the beginning of the universe during their four-day trip to CERN in Geneva, home to the world’s largest particle accelerator.

They enjoyed a tour around the exhibitions and a visit to the United Nations building, as well as exploring Geneva’s old town.

The first day of the trip began with a visit to the Red Cross Museum to learn more about the history of the Red Cross Foundation, hearing people’s stories of how the Red Cross helped them through interactive holograms. Students also participated in a game where they worked together to help save people on an island from a tsunami.  It was both an informative and emotional experience, fully immersing themselves in the turmoil that many had endured.

The group’s next stop was a tour of the United Nations buildings. The tour took the students through many of the various meeting rooms such as the Human Rights and Civilisations Room (donated by Spain), where the UN Human Rights Council meets. The most impressive rooms to visit, however, were the Assembly Hall and the marble corridor connecting the old Palais de Nations to the new UN building which is home to the original League of Nations.

 

“Visiting the UN buildings was particularly appealing to me as Geneva is the location of humanitarianism and so it was great learning about the decisions made in the building and the extent to which they help humanity.”Indie, Year 12 student

On the second day, the visit to CERN started with the Synchrocyclotron, the first ever accelerator built at CERN in 1957 followed by a tour around the two exhibitions at CERN, ‘Microcosm’ and ‘Universe of physics’.  The tour explained in more detail how particle accelerators work, and how particle physics increases our understanding of the universe. The pupils had an absolutely amazing experience being at CERN, and very inspired to be surrounded by so much ground-breaking engineering and physics.

On the final day the group visited a Science Museum and learnt a lot of new facts about astronomy and many more topics.

“This experience has further inspired me to pursue a career in physics.”Cara, Year 12 student