35 Sixth Form Physics and Mathematics students travelled to Geneva in December to visit the CERN research institute. Departing from Bristol Airport, students spent the first evening exploring the lakeside in Geneva, which was beautifully lit in the crisp winter environment.
On the Monday, students toured Geneva and visited several tourist attractions, including The History of Science Museum, botanical gardens and a boat ride across the lake to visit Jet d'Eau, getting splashed in the process. During the evening, students were given time to visit a local Christmas market, stocking up on souvenirs and drinking copious amounts of Swiss hot chocolate!
Tuesday was the big day, with the main visit to CERN. There, students received talks from practicing researchers about CERN's history, the development of collider technology over time and the search for the elusive Higgs Boson. Luckily, students were able to enter one of the collider chambers and witness the technology firsthand.
In their final evening, students had some free time to explore Geneva, visiting pastry shops and further sampling the local chocolate. On our final day, we took a trip out to the The Mont-Salève Cable Car, viewing Geneva from the clouds and crossing the French border in doing so. The views were stunning and were a great way to cap off the trip.
The students were a credit to St John's, showing maturity and respect at all times. They were trusted with their own free time periods and were forgiving to teachers when we made wrong turns! Thank you to everyone who was involved in supporting this trip, it was a delight to organise it and I hope that a good time was had by all.
