Submitted by saretz on

CERN announces the fifth edition of the Beamline for Schools Competition

CERN is pleased to announce the 5th edition of the Beamline for Schools Competition. Once again, in 2018, a fully equipped beamline will be made available at CERN for students from all around the world. As in previous years, two teams will be invited to CERN to carry out their proposed experiments. The 2018 competition is made possible thanks to the Arconic Foundation supporting Beamline for Schools (BL4S) for the third consecutive year.

The competition is open to teams of high-school students (who is eligible?) who, if they win, are invited (with two supervisors) to CERN to run their experiment. Teams must have at least five students but there is no upper limit to a team’s size (although just nine students per winning team will be invited to CERN). Teams may be composed of pupils from a single school, or a number of schools working together.

Previous winners have tested webcams and classroom-grown crystals in the beamline, others have studied how particles decay and investigated high-energy gamma rays. What would you do?

Interested? Think of a simple, creative experiment and pre-register your team in order to receive the latest information about the competition. Not sure if you should apply? Don’t be scared: a clever idea is all it takes to enter the competition. We can put every team in contact with experts that help them to refine their ideas and extensive documentation is available to both teachers and students.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity! BL4S does more than just give high school students a chance to play on actual, functioning science equipment: it exposes a host of students and teachers to particle physics and gives them the chance to be real scientists. You can find out more about how to apply, about the beamline and facilities, and read about previous winning teams below. The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2018.

Take part in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!