The Tale of Two Tunnels
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
In partnership with Merseyrail and the University of Liverpool's Victoria Gallery & Museum (VG&M) we would like to invite members of the public, artists and scientists to help create a science trail that tells the story of the building of a particle accelerator in one of Liverpool's underground railway tunnels, and its control room in a Liverpool museum.
Ten years previous to the completion of the LHC tunnel, engineers completed a circular tunnel beneath the city of Liverpool. With 4 stations, the Wirral Line loop (WLL) facilitates millions of journeys annually as passengers access Liverpool's iconic waterfront, museums, business districts, shopping areas, universities and homes. The Wirral Line also connects some of the areas with lowest rates of accessing higher education in the UK.
We would deliver the project in three main phases:
Phase 1: We tell the community about our STFC funded work (including contributions from particle, nuclear and accelerator research clusters). These events, led by academics and students from the University of Liverpool, will draw parallels between the tunnels of the LHC and WLL. The community sets the scientific objectives of the accelerator. We outline a 'design brief' for the accelerator.
Phase 2: Public submitted designs are reviewed. A celebration of the ideas will take place in printed and social media. Some carefully selected ideas are taken forward to commissioning stage.
Phase 3: Working with external companies, groups and physics workshop to implement the science trail. The trail will bring to life the idea of an accelerator installed in Liverpool city centre, which is based upon the responses of the public. The trail will include:
-art installations at each underground station (potentially representing 4 detectors of LHC);
-interactive exhibits at Lime St station (gateway to Liverpool, facilitates 16 M annually);
-control room experience at the World Museum, Liverpool. In the accelerator control room, we will look at the global perspectives of physics, including the role of accelerators in medicine, uniting the world through collaboration on large scale science experiments;
-marvelous machines and history of accelerators experience at the VG&M.
The completed materials would initially remain on show in Liverpool for one year.
Ten years previous to the completion of the LHC tunnel, engineers completed a circular tunnel beneath the city of Liverpool. With 4 stations, the Wirral Line loop (WLL) facilitates millions of journeys annually as passengers access Liverpool's iconic waterfront, museums, business districts, shopping areas, universities and homes. The Wirral Line also connects some of the areas with lowest rates of accessing higher education in the UK.
We would deliver the project in three main phases:
Phase 1: We tell the community about our STFC funded work (including contributions from particle, nuclear and accelerator research clusters). These events, led by academics and students from the University of Liverpool, will draw parallels between the tunnels of the LHC and WLL. The community sets the scientific objectives of the accelerator. We outline a 'design brief' for the accelerator.
Phase 2: Public submitted designs are reviewed. A celebration of the ideas will take place in printed and social media. Some carefully selected ideas are taken forward to commissioning stage.
Phase 3: Working with external companies, groups and physics workshop to implement the science trail. The trail will bring to life the idea of an accelerator installed in Liverpool city centre, which is based upon the responses of the public. The trail will include:
-art installations at each underground station (potentially representing 4 detectors of LHC);
-interactive exhibits at Lime St station (gateway to Liverpool, facilitates 16 M annually);
-control room experience at the World Museum, Liverpool. In the accelerator control room, we will look at the global perspectives of physics, including the role of accelerators in medicine, uniting the world through collaboration on large scale science experiments;
-marvelous machines and history of accelerators experience at the VG&M.
The completed materials would initially remain on show in Liverpool for one year.
| Description | Higher Education Innovation Fund - Knowledge Exchange & Impact |
| Amount | £9,836 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | Africa Oye |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Working along STFC's Daresbury Public Engagement team we introduced The Tale of Two Tunnels to a general public audience at the Africa Oye festival. The Oye is a celebration of African culture and music that attracts a diverse audience from across the city. At this event we aimed to introduce physics research to a low science capital audience and to raise awareness of the Two Tunnels project. University of Livepool researchers Chris Edmonds and Barry King were joined by PhD students who spoke about the role of particle accelerators in particle and medical physics. We engaged with 2216 people, some of the key figures include: - 16% were aged 0 to 7, 10% were aged 8 to 14 and 4% were 15 to 19. -43% of this audience were female. -Questionairres completed by audience gave the stand a rating of 4.5/5. -59% of the children engaged were female. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Big Bang North West |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Working along STFC's Daresbury Public Engagement team we introduced The Tale of Two Tunnels to a mostly school based audience at the Big Bang North West. At this event we aimed to introduce physics research to a school audience, to raise awareness of the Two Tunnels project and to get initial audience input to the science trail design. University of Livepool researchers Chris Edmonds and and a team of PhD and undergraduate students engaged the public with activities that explored the working of particle accelerators and their application to nuclear, medical and particle physics. We worked alongside Liverpool arts organisation, FACT, to deliver STEAM based activities. We engaged with 1826 young people, students and teachers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Big Bang North West |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Working along STFC's Daresbury Public Engagement team we introduced The Tale of Two Tunnels to a mostly school based audience at the Big Bang North West. At this event we aimed to introduce physics research to a school audience, to raise awareness of the Two Tunnels project and to get initial audience input to the science trail design. University of Livepool researchers Chris Edmonds and Laura Harkness-Brennan and a team of PhD students engaged the public with activities that explored the working of particle accelerators and their application to nuclear, medical and particle physics. A project artist collected the young people's reflections on the scientific content that they had encountered. We engaged with 2346 young people, students and teachers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | British Science Week activities with VG&M |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This British Science Week saw event seven undergraduate students being introduced to a young family audience to investigate physics research in the context of the Tale of Two Tunnels. The event took part at the Victoria Gallery & Museum, where 200 children (primary school age) took part. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar - Schools sessions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The Interaction Point spin-off project that was developed alongside Liverpool arts organisation, FACT (with additional funding through University of Liverpool's Knowledge Exchange and Innovation fund), has continued. This project has involved deep engagement with three groups of young people (15 young people per group for 9 sessions each), who have taken part in a series of STEAM workshops. For this aspect of the project we are working with a primary and two secondary schools that have a high proportion of pupil premium pupils and are in some of the most deprived areas in the UK. The project artists are completing a series of videos that will be used alongside the Tunnels launch. The young people involved have indicated a positive change in their attitude towards physics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.fact.co.uk/interaction-point |
| Description | Schools sessions - ongoing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 95 children have so far contributed to The Tale of Two Tunnels at schools sessions. Earlier sessions involved a 30 min research talk on the topics of particle accelerator physics (led by Chris Edmonds) or the application of accelerators to nuclear and particle physics (led by Laura Harkness-Brennan and Barry King respectively). This was followed by an arts activity led by a project artist (with the aim of gaining insight into the young people's understanding of and aspirations for physics research). Conversations surrounding these sessions led to a developing relationship with the learning team of a local arts organisation (FACT) and a spin off project called Interaction Point (with addition funding through University of Liverpool's Knowledge Exchange and Innovation fund). This ongoing project involves deep engagement with three groups of young people (15 young people per group for 9 sessions each), which is investigating a deep engagement of young people with physics research through a STEAM approach to learning. For this aspect of the project we are working with a primary and two secondary schools that have a high proportion of pupil premium pupils and are in some of the most deprived areas in the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| Description | Talking Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talking Science event organised by STFC public engagement team, hosted at University of Liverpool. The 2 hour event introduced The Tale of Two Tunnels to a public audience and involved the audience in a co-design process for the final science trail. The event was divided into three phases - - A 45 minute talk that introduced particle accelerator, particle and nuclear physics research (with the talks delivered by Liverpool academic Chris Edmonds, Laura Harkness-Brennan and Barry King). - Hands on demonstrations led by PhD students. These activities (including acceleratAR) were designed to deepen understanding in the research areas covered by the talks and to provide a space for the audience to engage with researchers on a one to one basis. -An arts session (led by Neil Winterburn of the FACT learning team) were the audience could reflect upon the scientific content of the event and design an experiment for the future. A key goal of this activity was to identify what messages from the talks and hands on sessions had been most important to the audience and to gain insight into what aspirations the audience has for physics research. The conversations held between researchers and the audience and outputs from the arts activities are influencing the design of the science trail. 51 people attended the event in person. The event was covered by local printed and online media (including the Liverpool Echo and Art In Liverpool) extending the reach. The project PI was interviewed on BBC radio Merseyside's breakfast show on the morning of the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.artinliverpool.com/going-underground-liverpool-residents-invited-to-take-part-in-unique-... |