More space, more-powerful computers and more exciting experiments! The new education laboratory in the National Centre for Synchrotron Science (NCSS) building at the AS can comfortably accommodate a whole class and a wider range of experiments.

The NCSS education laboratory is larger than the old laboratory and can comfortably accommodate a class of around 20-25 students. Benchtop access to gas and water means students can participate in a wider variety of experiments.

Upgraded computers that allow for the use of CDI (coherent diffractive imaging) software introduce session participants to how computers solve structures. Students use a simplified version of the software and mathematics employed in actual synchrotron experiments, applying these tools to large objects viewed under visible light rather than small complicated objects ‘viewed’ with x-rays.

Between August and October 2012, AS education officer Jonathan de Booy will provide laboratory sessions for 750 year 12 physics students from 45 Melbourne and 13 rural Victorian high schools. Students will undertake practical experiments directly linked to their curriculum for the Light and Matter area of study or the Synchrotron and its Applications optional study course.

Photos above and right: Students from years 11 and 12 at Mac. Robertson Girls High School in Melbourne were among the first to use the new education laboratory at the Australian Synchrotron