Ichinoseki Higashi Middle School in Takizawa, Ichinoseki City, held a special class on the International Linear Collider (ILC) on July 4th.

The city government holds these classes for middle school students in order to deepen their understanding of the ILC project. A researcher from Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK, in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture) came to teach the students about the basics of particle physics and what sort of research will be done at the ILC.

The class was attended by 27 third-year students, and taught by Masakazu Kurata of KEK, who explained to them the relationship between particle physics and the universe, as well as the basics of the ILC facility and what it aims to research. They also did a cloud chamber experiment, where you can see the paths taken by elementary particles when you shine light on a vessel cooled with dry ice and filled with an alcohol mist.

Kurata said, “The ILC will recreate the conditions seen at the very beginning of the universe. We need the entire world’s help in order to build it.”

Kaito Isobe, a student at the school, said, “I learned that matter is made out of not atoms, but the even smaller elementary particles. Next month, we are going on a city-sponsored field trip to Tsukuba City, so I’d like to gain more knowledge about the manufacturing field.”