Particle Physics Resources

Here you will find a variety of useful resources such as websites, video clips, free publications and even panoramic photo's of inside the LHC which are suitable for a wide range of audiences.

If you have produced a resource about the LHC and think others could benefit from it please send it to STFC's Public Engagement Team to look at.

Websites

• Oxford Sparks - Oxford Sparks is a portal for engaging with a wealth of exciting science taking place across Oxford University. Here you can find a number of free resources including videos, science trails, activities to try at home, mobile phone apps, games, podcasts, virtual tours and plenty more.
   
• Institute of Physics - The IoP's Schools and Colleges section of the website highlighting latest curriculum development initiatives, Affiliated Schools Scheme and professional development.
   
• Lancaster Particle Physics package - This site gives access to a number of simulations and explanations of particle physics, including a section on the LHC. The content is suitable for AS/A2 16+ students.
   
• CERN teacher resources - The Teaching Materials presented here will allow teachers to introduce topics in modern physics to middle and high school students.
   
• CERN's 'Angels and Demons' site - The launch of the film 'Angels and Demons' provided an opportunity to look at the myth versus the reality of the science at CERN. To help with this CERN produced this site, containing teacher resources, slide shows and videos of talks given to teachers visiting CERN.
   
• Accelerate! A live-action particle physics lecture - this site gives you the resources to help you put on your own version of the show. Designed for 11-18 year olds and the general public, Accelerate! demonstrates the principles of particle accelerators through a series of hands on demonstrations.
   
• Explore your Universe - a national programme of events, experiments and resources to help teach young people and their families about space and particle physics.
   
• Science Museum interactive game - A simple game that illustrates how scientists go about their search for new particles.
   
• Physics kits - Resources developed at Queen Mary University of London for students and teachers to use LEGO® to illustrate particle physics concepts. The lesson plans, activity sheets and booklets cover curriculum linked topics in radiation and particle physics.
   
• Minerva – a Masterclass tool allowing students to learn more about the physics that goes on in the ATLAS detector at the LHC.
   
• CERN@school – CERN@school brings technology from CERN into the classroom to aid with the teaching of particle and nuclear physics.
   
• Higgs Hunters – Uncover the building blocks of the Universe and help search for unknown exotic particles in LHC data in this citizen science Zooniverse project.

Apps

• LHSee - Smartphone application - LHSee is an App that allows you to see collisions from the Large Hadron Collider - This was funded through the STFC PE Small Awards Scheme.
   
• Collider – Smartphone application – The Higgs Boson in your hand! Collider lets you view high energy particle collisions directly from the Large Hadron Collider, making it simple to understand what's going on at a glance.

Images

• STFC image library. These contain images related to the particle physics activity in the UK as well as pictures from CERN.
   
• High Energy Physics image library (link opens in a new window) An LHC-related image database maintained by the High Energy Particle Physics Group at STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).
   
• CERN image gallery (link opens in a new window).
  CERN's extensive searchable library of images and animations, which includes the LHC, scientists and engineers, the CERN site and historical images.

Films

• Colliding Particles - a series of films following just one of the teams of physicists involved in the research at the LHC. The project documents their work at the frontiers of particle physics, exploring the human stories behind the research and investigating the workings of the scientific process itself.
   
• Backstage Science - Taking you "backstage" at some of the UK's most amazing science facilities. They include space telescopes, powerful lasers and football-field sized experiments.
   
• In Search of Giants – 15 short films by starring Professor Brian Cox as he takes us on a journey discussing interesting facts about particle physics.
   
• Go LHC Go (link opens in a new window) - A 13 minute film that describes the LHC and two of the experiments ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) and ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment).
   
• The Atlas Experiment Movie (link opens in a new window) - This award winning short film introduces the ATLAS experiment and the fundamental physics the LHC will explore.
   
• CERN's Video Database (link opens in a new window) - Video clips of the LHC project and historical material on the CERN website.

Animations

• The Basics of the Higgs - CERN scientists Dave Barney and Steve Goldfarb explain the exciting implications of the Higgs boson.
   
• What happened to antimatter - CERN scientist Rolf Landua returns to the seconds after the Big Bang to explain the disparity that allows humans to exist today.
   
• Exploration on the big data frontier – See CERN's involvement with big data from fifty years ago to today.
   
• The beginning of the Universe, for beginners - cosmologists and particle physicists explore these questions by replicating the heat, energy, and activity of the first few seconds of our universe, from right after the Big Bang.
   
• Dark matter - the matter we can't see - CERN scientist James Gillies tells us what accounts for the remaining 96% (dark matter and dark energy) and how we might go about detecting it.

Publications

• Little Book of The Big Bang - A cartoon booklet that introduces particle physics, particle accelerators and the Large Hadron Collider.
   
• A Tunnel to the Beginning of Time - An A1 sized poster of the ATLAS Detector inside the LHC.
   
• What is next for the LHC - A full-colour leaflet describing what is next for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
   
• Big Questions: Big Experiment - A full-colour A5 leaflet that opens out into an A2 double-sided wallchart describing the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
   
• Teaching STEM through inside the Atom - These teaching notes detail a collection of teaching resources available from STFC and partner organisations that use particle and nuclear physics – Inside the Atom – as an inspirational context for STEM learning.

All of these publications can be ordered free of charge.

External publications

• Elementary Constituents of Matter – A Poster from the International Particle Physics Outreach Group that details the fundamental particles and interactions that make up the Universe.

Newsletter

• UK News from CERN – a user-friendly newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with UK activities every fortnight.

Visit Guides

CERN - A visit to CERN is simply a unique experience. It is surprisingly easy to arrange. See guidance on arranging a visit by reading the visit guide The STFC Particle and Nuclear Physics Outreach Officer can also offer advice and guidance.

The STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Harwell, Oxfordshire, is home to ISIS, one of the world's leading pulsed neutron and muon source. It is also home to the particle physics research group. Additionally RAL houses the Central Laser Facility, the Diamond Synchrotron Light Source and the Space Test Facilities. For further information about the facilities click here. To find out more about the schools' programme contact the RAL schools' officer.

Particle Physics for you