It has been a while since my last post… And sadly, even though it is that time of year, vacation is not the reason. Last week I was giving a lecture in a continuing education event for high school teachers in Bavaria, this time taking place at the “Deutsches Museum”, the biggest science and technology museum in Germany. This event is organized annually by the Excellence Cluster Universe. I was giving a lecture on particle physics, covering the Standard Model (which the teachers of course know to some extend, since they all studied physics up to the bachelor level at some point) as well as possible extensions like Supersymmetry and Extra Dimensions. Of course topics like antimatter and black holes met with quite some interest… I guess this is also something to get students a bit excited. In addition to my lecture, there was also a lecture on astrophysics and cosmology, and then also some hands-on experiments. These took place in the TUMLab, a laboratory for high-school students and teachers operated by the Technical University Munich in the “Deutsches Museum”. There, the teachers could learn about cosmic expansion, about redshift and other things. Such events are always fun, because they are so different from what I usually do, and it is nice to try to convey my excitement about particle physics to others. I hope this also leads to some creative ideas for the classroom!
