Have you heard of the Beamline for Schools competition? If not, look no further. We'll tell you everything you need to know!
Starting with some essential terms
- A beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles.
- A beamline is a beam emitted from a particle accelerator.
- Beamline for Schools (BL4S) is a competition for high school students from around the world to design an experiment they would like to perform on a beamline, with the winning teams travelling to CERN, DESY or the University of Bonn to do just that!
Tell me more
The competition has engaged over 24,000 students since it kicked off in 2014. Supported through the CERN & Society Foundation, it is made possible thanks to external donations.
This year, a record-breaking 508 proposals were submitted from young people representing 72 countries! The five winning proposals came from: Spallateam (Belgium), Dawson Technicolor (Canada), Pumas In Kollision (Mexico), PhysiCAL (Türkiye) and Team XTReme (USA).
So, what is it like to win?
After submitting their proposals, each team received a Zoom invitation to discuss the technical details of their experiments. At the end of their meeting, the team from the USA was shown a picture of Beethoven, the Mexican and Canadian teams a picture of a hamburger, and the Turkish and Belgian teams a photo of the Mont Blanc bridge – symbolising that they had won the competition and would travel to Bonn, Hamburg and Geneva, respectively. Once on-site, the teams began their experiments – gaining valuable skills and unforgettable experiences:
“We faced a lot of problems and failure, and we learned how to deal with these. We also learned how to really work as a team and to work under pressure and I think that's great experience to have.” – Spallateam
“I really think that our working methods as a whole team have changed, and our standards have become higher after a week of testing.” – Team Member, Dawson Technicolor
“You always have to kind of move through the problems and solve things that are technical. This helps us to understand how a scientist works and how we could be better scientists in the future. This gives us opportunities that maybe we don't get from our schools or countries.” – Pumas in Kollision
The teacher from the Mexican team added that this is the school’s second time wining the competition, with previous winners going on to work on CERN’s ALICE experiment.
Indeed, the competition aims to inspire the next generation of scientists
“I realised that I'm really interested in particle physics through all the experimental stuff and the data analysis and that this could be something that I want to do my whole life. Before, I didn't think that. I was thinking about choosing a different major, but now I changed my mind. And so, overall, it was quite life-changing for me.” – Team Member, PhysiCAL
“I learned that we can try things that look impossible. This competition is so huge … you don't imagine winning. You just participate because it's interesting, and then you're here and you're doing what you want, and you can imagine yourself doing bigger things than when you first started.” – Team Member, Spallateam
On the most memorable moments of the competition …
- Team XTReme: The bonds with team and support scientists; the experience of making mistakes and learning from them
- Pumas in Kollision: Being in the control room testing the beam for the first time
- Dawson Technicolor: Getting the first set of data; connecting with people
- PhysiCAL: Seeing the CERN Control Centre
- Spallateam: Seeing the projects come to life
If you found this interesting …