Physics students from St Andrews International School Bangkok won the Best Outreach Proposal award for their outstanding work at the Beamline for Schools (BL4S) global physics contest. BL4S, a prestigious physics competition organised by CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland) and DESY (the German Electron Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany), invites High School students worldwide to propose detailed experiments to be conducted at a particle accelerator beamline. The contest judges would then select the top three teams and grant them a trip to CERN or DESY to perform their experiments using state-of-the-art equipment.
St Andrews ‘Glowing Muons’ stand out among over 400 hundreds of participants
Earlier in the year, our Head of Physics, Mr Daniel, coached three teams from St Andrews who would participate in BL4S 2024:
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The ‘Glowing Muons’: Im, Niio, Nina, Paak, Pun P., Pun W., and Riddhi
“Application of Muons As A Medium of Communication”
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The ‘Quantumplators’: Alyssa, Anish, Ari, Keira, Nitnem, Sanyam, Sena, and Vanshikaa
“Study on the Diffraction Pattern of Cherenkov Radiation Produced from Proton Beam through Aerogel Targets
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The ‘Glowing Skis’: Amber, Amy, Carina, Chatcha, Nami, and Yim
“Comparing Lepton Bremsstrahlung”
While none of our teams were selected for the main prize of conducting their experiment in Geneva, our students stood out in a significant way. In a fierce competition of over 400 participating teams and a high caliber of work across the board, the one from our ‘Glowing Muons’ was chosen for the Best Outreach Proposal. All participants will receive certificates of participation and, out of hundreds of proposals from teams across the globe,
In recognition of their work, the students have been awarded a telescope and t-shirts sponsored by the Belgian project, ‘Stars Shine for Everyone’. It is noteworthy that the telescope is signed by the competition organisers, including CERN’s Director-General Fabiola Gianotti and Gerardus 't Hooft, recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Outreach Project
In their own words, the ‘Glowing Muons’ describe their outreach project as follows:
“For our outreach activity, we aim to ignite interest in physics, particularly in particle physics, among younger generations, making it accessible to all, through our non-profit organisation called the ‘Pi-Oneers Foundation’. Our foundation works to support underprivileged schools in Bangkok to ensure that students from all backgrounds have the opportunity to explore the STEM world. As part of our outreach efforts, we aim to expand the understanding of physics among young people by conducting on-site teaching sessions in multiple schools, creating comics as well as translating some resources into Thai. Leveraging our position as students in an international school, we also seek to extend these opportunities to the international school community in Thailand. Our goal is to make physics more accessible to everyone by sharing our experiences and amazing opportunities.”
Our students have demonstrated a high level of resilience and industriousness, a fact for which we are immensely proud.
“This achievement is noteworthy given the increased competition this year, both in the number and quality of proposals. Our students' success is a testament to their dedication and creativity.”
— Daniel Glowinski, Head of Physics
