From Atoms to the Higgs Boson

Abstract

Secondary science education is vital, not only for students considering careers in science and technology-based fields, but for everyone. Its methodology teaches us how to extract information from the world around us and to find pertinent solutions to complex problems. Unfortunately, current curricula often end at the physics of the beginning of the twentieth century, only touching on relativity and quantum mechanics. Yet, we have come far since then and current advances, including the discovery of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, present exciting concepts that can ignite the interest of students, while still teaching them the fundamentals of physics. This chapter attempts to address this century-long gap in science education. It begins with a recap of the history of the atom which, for centuries, was considered the fundamental building block of matter. We then describe how exploring the details of the atom led us to realise that our understanding of physics at those dimensions required a rethink. From there, we describe our journey down the subatomic rabbit hole, discovering, organising, and re-organising the microscopic world of elementary particles until arriving at an understanding that is central to today’s research, the Standard Model. From there, we present the shortcomings of that model and pose questions we are striving to answer. We hope this chapter will spark the interest of science teachers, so that they too can pass the excitement of this research on to their students, the discoverers and inventors of tomorrow.