A lot of information about accelerators, detectors, particles and the Standard Model is found in Hands on CERN, but it is an advantage to have a textbook in particle physics to consult.

A few hours with Hands on CERN
Examine how the massive Z particle decays with the help of interactive particle collisions from the DELPHI experiment at CERN. The Z particle decays so quickly (within around 10^-24 s) that we only can observe the decay products.

• Have a look at particle detectors (Detectors)
• Have a look at accelerators (Accelerator)
• Have a look at animations of typical Z decays (Event Types)
• Look at some real events (particle collisions) where the Z⁰ has been produced and identify the different decays into quarks and leptons
• Read about quarks, leptons and the Z particle (Standard Model)
• Visit CERN (where the Z and W particles were discovered) via Internet

A day or two with Hands on CERN
Examine more in detail and more quantitatively how the massive Z particles decay with the help of interactive particle collisions from the DELPHI experiment at CERN.The Z particle decay so quickly (within around 10^-24 s) that we only can observe the decay products. Determine how often the Z⁰ particle decays into quarks and the different types of leptons (electron, muon and taulepton). For a shool class the large number of events (use several hundred) could be split among the students. The final result could be based on the results of everybody. (What is the advantage of adding everybody's results?)

• Have a look at particle detectors (Detectors)
• Have a look at accelerators (Accelerator)
• Have a look at animations of typical Z decays (Event Types)
• Look at some real events (particle collisions) with Z⁰ decays and identify the different decays into quarks and leptons
• Read about quarks, leptons and the Z particle (Standard Model)
• Visit CERN and Fermilab (where the top quark was discovered in 1995) via Internet

Another day or two with Hands on CERN
Examine how the massive Z and W particles decay with the help of interactive particle collisions from the DELPHI experiment at CERN. Both the W and the Z particle decay so quickly (within around 10^-24 s) that we only can observe the decay products. Try to identify how the Z⁰ and W particle decays into quarks and the different types of leptons.

• Have a look at particle detectors (Detectors)
• Have a look at accelerators (Accelerator)
• Have a look at animations of typical Z and W decays (Event Types)
• Look at some real events (particle collisions) where the Z⁰ has been produced and identify the different decays into quarks and leptons
• Read about quarks, leptons and the Z and W particle (Standard Model)
• Visit CERN and SLAC (where the tau lepton was discoverd) via Internet