Saturday Morning Physics 2020 — Virtual event with GSI and FAIR
21.11.2020 |
The popular event series “Saturday Morning Physics” was also held in 2020, but due to the corona pandemic in a purely virtual format. Around 200 high-school students from all over the State of Hesse took the opportunity to participate and gain exciting insights into current physics research. The long-standing series organized by the Technical University of Darmstadt also included the traditional visit of GSI and FAIR on November 21, 2020, this time, however, on video.
On four dates this year, the participants attended the lectures of “Saturday Morning Physics” via video conference. Today, they had the opportunity to learn more abut the facilities and research at GSI and to gain an insight into the construction of components and buildings for the future international research facility FAIR. After a short introductory lecture, they were taken via a guided video tour to the linear accelerator UNILAC, the main control room, the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18, the storage ring ESR, the tumor therapy and the large-scale experiment HADES. There was also a virtual visit to the test facility for superconducting FAIR magnets and to the viewpoint of the FAIR construction site. A drone flight over the construction site rounded off the event. Questions and comments could be submitted via a chat function and answered live, which was very well received by the students.
The event series “Saturday Morning Physics” is a project of the Physics Faculty of the TU Darmstadt. It takes place annually and aims to strengthen the interest of young people in physics. In lectures and experiments on consecutive Saturdays, the students learn about current developments in physics research at the university. Those who take part in all events receive the “Saturday Morning Physics” diploma. GSI has been one of the sponsors and supporters of the project since the start of the event series. (CP)
