Synchrotrons – making the light fantastic
Acitivities
Fermilabyrinth (Fermilab, USA)
Warpspeed – provides two on-screen games. In 'Push, push, push the particle', students can manipulate the animation to demonstrate particle acceleration. In 'Race for energy', students learn about acceleration by racing balls down tracks and observing their speed and energy.
(Note: The games require Shockwave.)
Experiments and activities to accompany the Warpspeed games can be found at Accelerators give particles oomph.
The D Files (Daresbury Laboratory, UK)
The atom smasher enquiry – students participate in a role-play about choosing a site for an atom smasher.
Can you be a special agent? – students read background information about synchrotron radiation then answer questions about the material.
To D or not to D – students join a hypothetical panel to judge the scientific merits of projects wanting to use synchrotron beamtime.
Exploring the material world: Three classroom teaching modules (MicroWorlds, Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab, University of California, USA)
Each of these modules provides background information and an activity relating to the atomic structure of materials. The modules on Kevlar and selenium present information as a series of clues to piece together.
The MATTER Project (UK)
Why diffraction? – an interactive tutorial showing different diffraction patterns and how a wave interacts with a single particle and a solid material. Also provides an exercise asking students to match the appropriate wavelength of radiation with the objects being studied.
Access Excellence (USA)
Determining the structure of a molecule – students create a simple molecular model, draw it, and then try to reconstruct it. This shows students the difficulty in determining the structure of molecules from X-ray diffraction patterns.
Earth Science Educational Resource Center (Stony Brook University, USA)
Bragg's law and diffraction: How waves reveal the atomic structure of crystals – provides a diagram showing two rays shining on two atomic layers of a crystal so that diffraction occurs. Students change angles and the distance between layers then click on 'Details' to determine if diffraction still occurs.
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (France)
Exploring matter with synchrotron light – outlines the content of an educational CD-ROM that provides a virtual tour of a synchrotron. It explains how a synchrotron works and describes its many applications. 'FLASH presentation' provides a sample of the kind of material that is available on the CD, which can be purchased from the site.
Page updated July 2006.