Education and Outreach

In addition to our research activities, the Adelaide HEP group is involved in a number of education and outreach programs for school students and the wider community.

Through outreach activities we aim to do the following:

• engage young people with the concepts of particle physics, and
• develop public knowledge of Australia's role in the global quest for knowledge in this field of research.

Outreach activities undertaken at Adelaide include events organised as a part of the national CoEPP outreach program. We host an annual particle physics masterclass geared towards exposing year 11/12 high school students in South Australia to the physics of the Large Hadron Collider, in which students are able to analyse data and take part in remote visits to the ATLAS experiment at CERN and Fermilab.

We also offer students work experience activities and the opportunity to spend a week researching and learning about particle physics at CoEPP's Adelaide node. Please contact us for more details.

We interact with the general public through a variety of public lectures which occur periodically throughout the year, along with active participation in Science Alive and National Science Week. Information about upcoming public lectures may be found on the calendar maintained by the South Australian branch of the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP SA).

The Science of Doctor Who

Adelaide HEP group member Dr Martin White co-stars in the touring stage show "The Science of Doctor Who", presented by RiAus in association with BBC Worldwide Australia and New Zealand. For further information, including tour dates, please visit the website.

High Energy Physics on the Web

A wide range of resources are available online for learning more about particle physics. The Particle Adventure provides an introduction to particle physics concepts. Many other useful sites are collected at QuarkNet and at The Particle Adventure site, and are a good starting point for finding more information about particle physics. Quantum Diaries, on the other hand, gives an insight into what it is like to be a particle physicist.

Resources for teachers and for those who are interested in more hands-on activities may be found in the material provided by CERN, by the ATLAS collaboration, including the Learning with ATLAS project, and in the resources provided by the International Particle Physics Outreach Group. Included amongst these are several software packages that may be used to simulate particle detectors and collisions, such as HYPATIA (as used in our masterclasses), MINERVA and the Lancaster University Particle Physics Package.