Science
Related: About this forumRunning on a track is boring. Run like a proton at Fermilab’s new playground!!
Or you can run like an antiproton if you prefer.
From a press release by Fermilab, the National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois:
This week the Fermilab Education Office celebrated the completion of its new Run Like A Proton accelerator path for middle- and high-school-age visitors to the laboratory.
Located at the Lederman Science Center, the path is an aboveground, scaled-down version of the routes a particle can take through Fermilabs accelerator complex. While running along the path, kids can act like they are the particles of the labs physics program zipping through underground tunnels.
Kids have different modes of learning, said Spencer Pasero of Fermilabs Education Office. They can learn about the work of the lab with our indoor exhibits, but now they can also learn about it through our new outdoor playground.
Its a playground with a physics lesson. Kids playing the parts of protons and antiprotons collide by high-fiving each other as they run along the accelerator path. Signs along the path guide them in the right direction, whether they want to follow the path a proton would take as it circles the Main Injector or assume the flight of a neutrino headed toward Minnesota
<snip>
Students run like a proton around the accelerator path, and afterward when they go on a tour of Fermilab, the docents ask them, Remember when you were running like a proton? said Marge Bardeen, head of the Education Office. And they remember! What a great way to learn. .
Fermilabs new Run Like A Proton accelerator path
at the Lederman Science Center is now open.
Photo: Reidar Hahn
Learning about science really is fun, for everyone!
A good comment to this announcement was posted on Quantum Diaries:
Chris says:
One difference. The protons dont cry when they collide with an anti-proton.
tridim
(45,358 posts)DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)but I suspect the intent was more for science education than for sex education. Who knows?
itsrobert
(14,157 posts)What could go wrong?
TheMadMonk
(6,187 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)I want one for our kids! Actually, I could make one of those things at our kids school. I wonder if they would let me do it? I just may find out.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)...making a full copy of Fermilab would require a lot of space and could be expensive.
Just kidding, of course!
There is a organization, Fermilab Friends for Science Education, that helped to fund/build the accelerator park.
For more information contact Susan Dahl at 630-840-3094 or sdahl@fnal.gov.
I bet you could contact them and get some ideas about how you could work with your children's schools to improve science education. Here's a link for resources that they have for educators: http://ed.fnal.gov/home/educators.shtml. You could probably mock up the accelerator pathways on grass with marking paint for a temporary 'accelerator'.
Here's a large scale picture of the Physics Playground :
"Run Like a Proton" joins two other exhibits, a human sundial and a bubble chamber window in front of the Lederman Science Center. Stay tuned for additions to our playground.
Have fun! Hope your protons and antiproton offspring have fun colliding, too!
DG
defacto7
(13,485 posts)Even on a smaller scale than the playground version above, it could be a very fun addition to learning. When kids get a visual, tangible, in their minds eye view of anything, they carry it with them in a much different way than just seeing the pictures. It can be an inspiring thing, like a light-bulb moment for some, and that is what kids need, something that connects them personally to science in hopes they will keep that view of their world instead of some of the less scientific alternatives.