2021 International Masterclasses in Particle Physics
"The 2021 edition of the International Masterclasses in Particle Physics in Portugal has just come to an end. For the first time held fully online, the MC had over 400 participants"
The activity took place on the five Saturdays foreseen in the international program, between 20 February and 20 March. Despite some turbulence in school calendars and tiredness of online activities, 380 students and 40 teachers participated in a total of 9 sessions, held from Ponta Delgada, Braga, Évora, Lisbon (FCUL and IST), Vila Real, Faro, Coimbra and Oporto.
In addition to the usual data analysis of the ATLAS and CMS experiments of CERN's LHC, an activity related to the applications of particle physics was carried out for the first time: the planning of tumor treatments with particle beams (photons, protons and carbon nuclei), which was highly appreciated by the 40 participants.
The comments of students and teachers were very positive, and some advantages of the online version were even highlighted - such as the fact of opening the participation to students from distant schools, or the greater support from tutors (there was on average one tutor for five participants, instead of for ten as usual in the face-to-face activity).
We'll be back in 2022!
