Physics teacher takes students to Synchrotron

Grade 12 physics teacher Nathan Smart and teacher Rebecca Smart accompanied five physics students across Canada to visit the Canadian Lightsource Synchrotron Facility run out of the University of Saskatchewan. “I think it was a fantastic experience,” said Smart. “No one from Nova Scotia has ever been to the Synchrotron with students.”

After visiting the Canadian Lightsource in the summer, Smart was in touch with the facility’s education coordinator and the opportunity arose to take his students.

Once departing on March 21, the group’s first day at the Canadian Lightsource consisted of safety training and radiation awareness.

The second day students learned about the experiment they would be doing and how the Synchrotron works, he said.

The Synchrotron is a particle accelerator, which takes electrons and speeds them up to close to the speed of light, he explained.

Then it zips around in a ring giving off really bright light, said Smart.

On day three they completed their first experiment, which was on a piece of meteorite from Alberta.

Their task was to find out what was in the meteorite, “and they managed to do it,” he said. They found sulphur and phosphorus inside, which took them seven hours.

Smart said on the fourth day students examined an unknown material to identify the elements.

Students did the reading, ran the machines and looked at graphs, he added.

Once they were finished the experiment, the researcher at the facility checked their results.

It turns out they identified all but one of the elements, which is almost impossible to find, said Smart. “The trip went really well,” said Smart. “We used our last day to do the campus tour thing and see a little bit of downtown Saskatoon.”

The estimated cost of the trip was over $7,500.

The group received $6,000 in funding from the Canada Research Council Grant.

They raised about $500 through fundraising and received $1,000 through community group donations.

Smart thanked everyone for their donations, as “without them it would have been a pricey trip.”

For more information visit www.lightsource.ca.