CERN Trip for A Level Students

Our year 13 students went on a school visit to Geneva. Although the trip highlight was a guided tour of CERN for our Physics students, all the students enjoyed the history of CERN and its contribution to medical sciences. Our guide Tobias, a Nuclear Research Scientist at CERN took us inside the CERN’s ‘Antimatter Factory’ and showed us how Antiprotons are made and stored. He also explained in detail the current experiments and research to use antimatter to medical treatments in such a way that even the non-physics students were fascinated by it. We then visited to the CERN’s IT and data center and saw the massive processing center analyzing huge amount of data per second which was intriguing for our IT students.

We also visited Geneva’s Natural History Museum with realistic displays of numerous animal species, picturesque Botanical gardens with beautiful and rare plant arrays and enjoyed the walk along the lake with some down time to buy souvenirs in Bel Air and practice language skills whilst communicating in French.

All the students were truly inspired by the research and undoubtedly the hands-on experience will not only improve their grades but also has enthused them for their study at university. The trip provided excellent opportunity for students to extend their learning outside the classroom and develop various life skills such as teamwork, compassion, communication and discipline in the real world. Whether it was enjoying the evening meals together at local restaurants, travelling in the trams or buses or walking the streets of Geneva the students made memories to last a lifetime.