Learn and Play inside the LHC

The ATLAS group at UoS is looking to extend their outreach towards new audiences and to develop the ways in which to interact with the local community and showcasing their research. In particular, explaining the research environment at CERN and how Sheffield researchers are embedded there to conduct research on the forefront of high energy physics is difficult: Videolinks during the international masterclasses or virtual visits to the ATLAS control room leave the active researchers at Sheffield to take a passive role.

This makes it harder to have a two-sided interaction as ideal for public engagement. Group members based at CERN regularly meet up with school classes from the Sheffield area that travel to CERN. This allows for interactions only with a minority of the local South Yorkshire population - those privileged enough to undertake such school trips.

The National Videogame Museum is operated by the charity the BGI, whose charitable objects are to educate the public about the art, science, technology and history of videogames through a museum, training and research. The NVM wants to foster collaborations with local educational institutions, create new links between videogames and STEM learning and develop new research utilising video games not just as cultural phenomena but also as learning resources and useful tools for research.

The collaboration between UoS and NVM aims to tap into new audiences for both organisations: those with an interest in video games (but no prior interest in science at LHC and ATLAS) and those with an avid interest in science (but without any knowledge of video game technology as a useful educational and research tool in science and society).

There are a number of distinct aims and impacts:

-- Allow STFC-funded, Sheffield-based researchers themselves to take local students and the local public on a tour at CERN and discuss with them the unique research environment there but also the ways that Sheffield-based researchers belong to this research community and carry out this research in Sheffield. This can be transferred to other CERN-associated universities and research groups at a later stage of the project.

-- Get into a dialogue with the public and with school classes about what inspiration and ideas do they draw from the LHC or ATLAS and how they imagine themselves to interact with the experimental facilities.

-- Introduce an active element into the engagement with videogames and particle physics by introducing workshop participants to tools to actively create their own video game worlds, inspired by particle physics.

-- Inform the public about the interplay between technological progress for video games and how this is used in research (and vice versa) -- Create engaging resources (workshops, lectures, VR guided tour) to be used in future

-- Increase confidence in museum visitors to try out STEM skills and learn foundational skills related to games design, programming, physics and science, using games in the museum

Using CERN as inspiration and the virtual LHC as an exemplar, we can equip people with new knowledge about use of videogame technology in science, and inform them about jobs in STEM to support career/study choices in science and videogame development alike. We can also reinforce visitors' understanding of how science and technology contribute to economy and culture.

Brainstorming game design ideas within the LHC and ATLAS and building guided tours to the facilities establish a unique new dialogue between the public and researchers which will inspire UoS and ATLAS researchers.