High School Students Explore Particle Physics in Masterclass at Vetenskapens Hus
On Monday, the Oskar Klein Centre (OKC) hosted an International Particle Physics Masterclass at Vetenskapens Hus, welcoming 13 enthusiastic high school students from Stockholm and Västerås.
Students learning more about CERN particle physics.
Organized as part of the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG), the event introduced students to the fundamentals of particle physics, the workings of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and the ATLAS experiment. Through engaging presentations by OKC researchers Sara Strandberg (SU), Christian Ohm (KTH) and Jonas Strandberg (KTH), students learned about the Standard Model, particle detection techniques, and how physicists identify subatomic particles such as electrons, muons, and photons.
Hands-on activities allowed students to examine real collision data from proton-proton interactions, using software to visually identify signatures of Z bosons and Higgs bosons. By analyzing these events, students created distributions of invariant mass and experienced first hand how physicists discover and study fundamental particles.
The masterclass culminated in a live video conference with CERN, connecting the Stockholm participants with peers from schools in France, Germany, and Italy. By pooling their data, the students gained insight into the international collaboration that underpins modern particle physics research and an appreciation of the strength of global scientific teamwork.
We look forward to hosting more inspiring educational events and fostering curiosity in the next generation of physicists.
