Nuclear Physics Outreach Programme

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This proposed programme primarily aims to increase the overall knowledge and understanding of nuclear physics within local communities in an interactive and novel way, portraying nuclear physics as an active and exciting field of scientific research. Specifically, the aim is to enhance levels of understanding regarding experimental techniques such as fixed target scattering experiments and the concept of particle kinematics, as well as fundamental concepts in nuclear physics like the nuclide chart, nuclear fusion/fission reactions and the binding energy of nuclei. The aim is also to raise the important awareness of crucial applications relying on nuclear physics which are useful and relevant to every day life, for example nuclear medicine, or meeting future energy demands through the realisation of novel fusion technology.Our proposed programme is extremely timely, as we plan to take advantage of an upcoming large scale international platform around which to coordinate our activities. We expect this to kick-start future development and continuation of our activities. The International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC) series is the largest international conference devoted to fundamental nuclear physics research. The 2019 instance (INPC2019) will be held, in the end of July 2019, at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow. The Nuclear and Hadron Physics (NHP) Research Group of the University of Glasgow (UoG) led the successful bid to bring INPC2019 to Glasgow and are chairing the organisation of the conference. The direct objective of this proposal is to organise a series of nuclear physics outreach events which will form a large scale public engagement component of the INPC2019.The goal is to educate as many members of the general public and local communities as possible, but school pupils and school teachers will be targeted, including schools from disadvantaged areas. Scientific peers and science communicators (STEM ambassadors) will also be included and invited to take part. The objective of this is to generate future opportunities for the resources we will develop to be re-used and disseminated widely and successfully within the STEM community.The objectives are to develop materials for and host a series of nuclear physics themed events. This will include teacher training, a masterclass, a workshop, and a novel temporary pop-up exhibition. The exhibition will be re-usable for science museums/events and will be centred around the focal point of an eye-catching 3D, 8m long, complete model of the nuclide chart, constructed from LEGO. This chart was developed by the University of York (UoY) Binding Blocks (BB) team. To establish the programme beyond our events, we aim to provide classroom activity resources for teachers.We anticipate the main impact generated by our programme to be knowledge exchange, having strong educational value. This would occur directly at our events and beyond, within classrooms. The educational content of the programme is designed to be universally accessible, however, to a certain extent it has been aligned with current school curricula and the STFC "Inside the Atom - connections to the curriculum" resources material. The programme will therefore create its highest levels of impact within schools and the educational community.Having visited and engaged with our events and exhibition, participants are expected to have an increased understanding of nuclear physics, increased awareness of the relevance of nuclear physics to everyday life and realise that radiation is universally present and not always harmful. Through hands-on activities and a novel eye-catching exhibition, incorporating virtual multimedia elements, participants will recognise that fundamental science is fun and interactive. Visitors from STEM communication and scientific research communities, who will be included, may wish to initiate future collaborative opportunities, providing further dissemination of our resources.