ATLAS NOTEATL-OREACH-PUB-2015-001

5th October 2015

Building Blocks of the Universeusing stackable plastic bricks to impart knowledge in particle physics

The ATLAS Collaboration

Abstract

This article presents possibilities to impart knowledge of and enthusiasm for particle physicsto essentially all non-expert target audiences by the use of LEGO bricks and models ofparticle physics experiments built from these. Methods of using LEGO models, both as apassive exhibit and as part of interactive outreach events, are presented, alongwith a historicalreview of the “Build Your Own Particle Detector” programme and the corresponding idea ofhosting competitions in building detector models in LEGO pieces as a perfect setting to grasppeople’s attention, get them involved and ultimately convey knowledge in particle physics tothem.

© 2020 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS Collaboration.Reproduction of this article or parts of it is allowed as specified in the CC-BY-3.0 license.

Contents1 Introduction 2

2 The ATLAS LEGO Model 22.1 An Odyssey 32.2 Using the Model for Outreach 5

3 Build Your Own Particle Detector 63.1 Public Events 73.2 Web and Social Activity 9

4 Summary and Outlook 9

1 Introduction

Finding the ultimate “Building Blocks of the Universe” as well as understanding their interactions andthereby solving some of the greatest mysteries mankind still has to answer. That is just one way ofsummarising the objectives of elementary particle physics in one sentence. One might already guess thatthis endeavour is not an easy one and that it is fundamental research we are talking about. The kind ofresearch where results won’t have a direct implication on your every-day life in the next few years, but alsoresearch that has driven mankind forward over centuries. It is the answers to such very basic questionsthat brought us to where we are today. It is research carried out by only a few people, but yet interestingand inspiring for so many others. Usually people not directly involved in this hunt for answers simply donot know enough about it, but get fascinated and excited once they do.

This article is devoted to just one idea of how to grasp people’s attention and get them involved to sharesome of the enthusiasm for elementary particle physics and all the questions we can already answer andmysteries we yet have to solve.

As the whole project started out with the design and construction of a LEGO [1] model of the ATLAS [2]detector, the first section is dedicated to the initial idea, a short historical overview and some details andsuggestions for the use of the model during outreach activities within the ATLAS Collaboration. Thesecond section introduces the “Build Your Own Particle Detector” [3] (BYOPD) idea as a second stageto get people interested and involved. It also highlights the by now broad selection of LEGO models ofother particle physics experiments as well as ways of using social media to further increase the reach ofthe BYOPD idea.

2 The ATLAS LEGO Model

In the same way people are fascinated by the physics and mysteries yet to solve once they have heardabout it, they are usually also stunned by current particle physics experiments once they have seenthem. Unfortunately not everyone has the chance to visit one of the big laboratories such as CERN [4],the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Geneva, to actually see one of today’s enormousexperiments; such as ALICE [5], ATLAS, CMS [6] or LHCb [7]; for real. To still enable people to get

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Figure 1: Impressions of the construction of the very first ATLAS LEGO model at NBI.

an idea of the sheer size, complexity and the structure of these experiments scale models offer a uniquepossibility. If in addition, these models are built using simple off-the-shelf building blocks appealing toeveryone who has been and/or still is a child one ends up with an ideal exhibit to explain the experimentalmeans to answer fundamental question in particle physics. As a result of that, building a LEGO model ofthe ATLAS experiment is an almost obvious way to go.

2.1 An Odyssey

The idea of building an ATLAS LEGO model was born already in 2006, in preparation for a publicoutreach event at the Niels Bohr Institute [8] (NBI) in Copenhagen. It took about five years until inautumn 2011 a more or less complete 3D draft for an ATLAS LEGO model was ready. The actual design,done using the LEGODigital Designer software [9], took about 48 hours, almost entirely spent on a singleweekend with very little sleep. The model consists of about 9500 pieces, of 201 different types, in elevendifferent colours. Once built about it is 1 m × 50 cm × 50 cm in size and roughly 1:50 in scale andapproximately matches a standard LEGO mini figure.

It took little to no convincing for the high energy physics group at NBI to cover the expenses for the firstreal life model. At that time an order was as simple as pressing a button within the software. After about33 hours of work, spread out over several weekends and after hours in the electronics lab at NBI, the veryfirst ATLAS LEGO model, as shown in Figure 1, was built.

A few days before the first model was completely constructed, and unfortunately a bit too early to be fullyprepared, the first pictures went public and the model caught quite some attention through several sciencerelated blogs. Once the model was finished and after an overwhelming response in blogs, newspapers andmagazines from around the world, it did not take much to convince the ATLAS Outreach group to financetwo more models, one to be displayed in the ATLAS Visitor Centre at CERN and one to create buildinginstructions for more models to come. As the Digital Designer could not provide a sensible constructionmanual with a reasonable number of pages, it was decided to create a manual in the form of video clipsinstead. With the kind help and support of the public relations office at NBI a set of 20 video clips,showing the construction of the second ATLAS LEGO model and still available at [3], was producedover a period of about three months, using professional recording and mixing equipment. Unfortunately,due to the discontinuation of LEGO’s “Design by Me” programme in January 2012, these three modelswere the only ones that could easily be bought from within the Digital Designer software. As the onlineLEGO store turned out to be unsuitable for ordering this amount and variety of bricks and pieces, anothersolution had to be found, marking the beginning of an odyssey.

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Figure 2: Impressions of the smaller ATLAS LEGO model.

After contacting about a dozen people from within LEGO, from LEGO Shop manager to members of theboard, over the period of about half a year, contact was finally, and to a large extent by sheer luck, madeto someone within the LEGO Community Building Programme. As word about the model spread withinthe ATLAS Collaboration there was already quite some demand for ATLAS LEGO models from ATLASinstitutes from all around the world. With the kind help of the guys at the LEGO Community BuildingProgramme, the first order of seven models was placed in May 2012, and sets of pieces were sent directlyto institutes in Canada, Switzerland, Italy and the UK. Soon after the first of these models was constructedand due to an increased interest by the member institutes, another order was placed in September 2012.Out of the 27 models in this order 16 went to Japan, giving full coverage of all Japanese ATLAS institutesat the time.

In parallel to the continued success of the large model, a smaller version, made of only 560 pieces, roughly1:2000 in scale and shown in Figure 2, was born in late 2012. The idea was to turn it into a more or lessofficial set and make it available to the public as a souvenir in CERN and ATLAS shops and to use itduring outreach activities. While trying to accomplish this idea, once again talking to various people, thesupport of the LEGO Community Building Programme for the large ATLAS LEGO model unfortunatelystopped in March 2013. As kind of a counter-reaction to that and as it seemed to be the only way toturn the smaller model into an official set, the smaller model entered the LEGO Ideas1 campaign in June2013 [10]. With the help of various blogs, news sites, newspapers and especially IFLS [11], the campaignreached the necessary 10k supporters in record-breaking time and the ATLAS mini model entered theofficial review in September 2013.

At the same time, other means of creating wide-spread attention to restart the support for the large ATLASLEGOmodel were considered. And so it was in October 2013 and with the help of the high energy physicsgroup at Manchester University, that 2013 Nobel laureate Professor Peter Higgs could be convinced to signone of the many ATLAS LEGO models, as shown in Figure 3. Apparently, this caused enough attention,so that within only a few days another, this time ultimately final, order of 23 large ATLAS LEGO modelscould be placed.

In January 2014, the LEGO Review Board decided not to turn the ATLAS mini model into an officialset, most likely due to the imperfect design, which admittedly was rather a placeholder for an idea than aproper and well thought through LEGO design.

In February 2014, 350 kg of LEGO pieces, from the latest and last order, arrived at CERN and in atremendous five-day effort these were sorted into 23 sets of pieces, to be shipped out to ATLAS institutesaround the world. Just at the end of this little endeavour and kind of the icing on the cake, 2013 Nobel

1 At the time, LEGO Ideas was still known as LEGO Cuusoo.

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Figure 3: 2013 Nobel laureates Peter Higgs and François Englert signing parts of the ATLAS LEGO model.

laureate Professor François Englert could be convinced to par with Peter Higgs and sign another part of alarge ATLAS LEGO model, as shown in Figure 3.

By the time of writing this article, there exist at least 60 large ATLAS LEGO models at 57 institutes in16 countries on five different continents. At least two more individuals have ordered the pieces by othermeans and built the large model using their own brick collection. There are many more than 100 copiesof the ATLAS mini model worldwide. The two Nobel laureates’ signatures can be seen in the ATLASLEGO model showcase in the ATLAS Visitor Centre at Point 1 at CERN.

2.2 Using the Model for Outreach

The ATLAS LEGO model turned out to be huge success and has been used for a variety of outreachactivities over recent years. From being a sole, though very eye-catching, display item in exhibitions andduring public events of the ATLAS institutes and museums world wide, to being used to actively teachparticle physics to students.

Being built from LEGO pieces makes the model an eye-catcher giving the chance to talk to people thatotherwise would not have visited the particle physics event or exhibition otherwise. Talking to visitorslooking at the model is an ideal setting to get them involved in a discussion about the experiment and thephysics goals. The fact that the model is roughly in scale to the LEGOmini figures that come along with itand features all essential parts of the experiment, adds additional value to the discussions, as people can getan idea of the size and the structure of a modern general purpose particle physics experiment. In additionto the ideal case, of having physicists able to explain things available during outreach event, the model hasalso been featured as a central item in various long-term exhibitions at institutes and museums, such asDeutsches Museum Bonn [12], Melbourne Planetarium [13] and Palais de la Découverte Paris [14], justto name a few.

Aside from being a static exhibit, the ATLAS LEGO model has also been used during interactive events.Embedded in presentations and discussions about particle physics, groups of eight to twelve studentshave built the model together with ATLAS members over the course of one or two days. The time spenton building the various parts of the ATLAS detector can be used to discuss the relevant detector partand its function in detail and helps the students to remember, as they get more involved and connectedthan by simply listening to a presentation. Impressions from the first event of this kind, held at NBI inCopenhagen, can be seen in Figure 4. These events can easily be adapted to any grade in school.

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Figure 4: Impressions of an outreach event with highschool students building the ATLAS LEGO model at NBI.

Figure 5: Impressions of the CMS models built at University of Maryland.

3 Build Your Own Particle Detector

The idea for “Build Your Own Particle Detector” [3] was born in mid 2013, in preparation for thePasseport Big Bang [15] inauguration event at CERN, to further develop the idea of events that involveactive contributions from the visitors. To additionally enhance the engagement, these events are usuallyheld in the form of competitions, giving the visitors the chance to win particle physics related prizes.A detailed description of the implementation and necessary preparations for such an interactive BYOPDevent will be given in the following sections.

Over the past years, BYOPD has evolved to be the home not only for the two types of outreach events, bothin small groups of students and in larger public competitions, but also to various LEGO-made detectormodels. By now, this includes both the large and the small ATLAS model, two matching LEGO modelsof the CMS experiment, shown in Figure 5, and the LHC micro models, shown in Figure 6. The two CMSLEGO models were designed by Jaime Gomez, Jeff Temple and Marguerite Tonjes of the high energyphysics group at the University of Maryland in 2012 and joined the BYOPD web site in 2014. The LHCmicro models, designed by Nathan Readioff of University of Liverpool in 2014, joined the BYOPD website early 2015, matching the start of the associated LEGO Ideas campaign [16].

By now, more than a dozen BYOPD events have been carried out, with more than 50 students building thelarge ATLAS LEGO model and close to 600 participants in modelling competitions. Since August 2013BYOPD is also present in social media [17] as described the following sections.

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Figure 6: Impressions of the LHC micro models (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) by Nathan Readioff.

3.1 Public Events

The first public BYOPD event took place during the Passeport Big Bang [15] inauguration at CERN inJune 2013. Since then, these model building competitions have been arranged about a dozen times atvarious occasions. Some impressions can be seen in Figure 7.

The basic idea behind these events is to mix active participation of visitors in a design and buildingcompetition with the unique chance to talk to them about particle physics in a very relaxed environment.This is done by providing enough LEGO pieces for several people to design and build at the same timeand enough volunteers to entertain and educate participants and their company. There is essentially nolimitation on the target audience other than the minimum age of four years as suggested by The LEGOGroup, as the level of information one can convey should be adjusted to each individual participant andtheir company. Thereby, this activity works well not only for children, but also for teenagers and adults,both as participants and as an accompanying person. The latter, especially in cases where they come witha child bound by a pile of LEGO pieces, probably make up the main target audience.

Usually participants are asked to design, build and name a “particle detector”, or whatever they think a“particle detector” should or does look like. It does not really matter whether the event offers the chanceto actually see a real particle physics experiment before the participants are asked to design their own, asit has been found not to matter much in the end. In any case, the volunteers will have the chance to discussthe design and operation of both the participant’s model and real experiments. After the participants havefinished building their “particle detector” and have given it a name, they are ready to enter the competition.To do so, one of the volunteers will take a picture of the model along with a ticket featuring a uniquemodel number, as shown in Figure 8, and the participants are asked to register their design together withtheir name, email address and model number via the BYOPD web site [3]. Thereafter they are asked todisassemble the model and return the LEGO pieces to the common pile for others to reuse. By takingidentifiable pictures of the models, one not only saves in the number of necessary LEGO pieces, but alsogains the chance to present the models on a web site and to continue the competition in social media, asdescribed in the following section. At the end of the event, the best and most witty models can be selectedbased on the pictures and the detector names. Prizes, ideally already presented during the event, areusually sent out by regular mail within the following week and comprise anything from particle physicsmerchandise, over books to guided tours through labs and experiments. As an immediate reward and tomotivate the participation in the event, small prizes, such as stickers, pens or buttons, can be handed outto the participants once they registered.

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Figure 7: Impressions from various BYOPD events.

Figure 8: Example of a BYOPD registration ticket.

Checklist for hosting a BYOPD event:

• contact info@build-your-own-particle-detector.org(lots of things are already in place and available from BYOPD)

• at least two to three volunteers at any given time(every extra person, is a person to actually do outreach and explain things)

• incentive prizes for the best models(remember to display them during the event)

• give-away prizes for every registered participant(to give immediate reward and to create additional motivation to participate)

• one or more large tables, preferentially with benches on each side(chairs are fine, though take up more space)

• reasonable pile of random LEGO pieces(20 to 40 kg have proven to be enough and can be provided by BYOPD)

• event registered at the BYOPD web site [3] to accept registrations(BYOPD can set up a registration form online)

• tickets to enter the competition(used to anonymously identify models and provided by BYOPD)

• a digital camera to take pictures of the models along with a ticket(allows to reuse the pieces of a given model for later models)

• a computer with internet connection to register the models(participant’s name, model name, email address and ticket number)

• have the pictures uploaded to the BYOPD web site [3] and Facebook page [17](to further spread the word and create attention even after the actual event)

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3.2 Web and Social Activity

The BYOPD web site [3], complemented by an associated Facebook page [17], is the central hub for allactivities. It features information, galleries, statistics and construction manuals for all available LEGOmodels and is used to announce and advertise BYOPD events and news of all kinds. BYOPD competitions,as described in the previous section, are complemented by online audience awards. These audience awards,having people vote for their favourite models on the BYOPD Facebook page, not only create additionalattention and help spread the word to a larger community, but also extend the experience for the individualparticipant and help to turn the events into a long-lasting memory.

4 Summary and Outlook

Using LEGO pieces to build models of a particle physics experiments, such as the ATLAS detector, hasproven to be a perfect mean to grasp people’s attention and still be able to convey all the necessary detailsof such experiments to make it a valuable tool in explaining the detectors as well as the physics. The largeATLAS LEGO model has been a huge success and is used for outreach activities at 57 institutes in 16countries worldwide.

In the same way, it has been shown that inviting smaller groups of students to build detector modelsin LEGO pieces as part of an intense outreach event or calling a broader audience to take part incompetitions to build their own ideas of a “particle detector” in LEGO pieces creates a unique setting toconvey knowledge in particle physics to them.

The “Build Your Own Particle Detector” programme is looking forward to many more events, creativeand fun ideas of people taking part in the competitions, new means of using the detector LEGO modelsin outreach and chances to get people interested in and fascinated by particle physics.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the high-energy-physics group at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen for theirinitial support and for paying for the pieces of the very first model; the ATLAS Collaboration outreachgroup for immediately picking up on the idea and their support as well as financing the second and thirdmodel; and Jan Beyer and Kim Ellekjær Thomsen at the LEGO Community Building Programme for theirhelp and support to get our hands on so many pieces. We thank everyone who enjoyed the models andwho took part in one of the BYOPD events to help spread the word about the fascination of elementaryparticle physics.

LEGO, LEGO Ideas, LEGO Cuusoo and the LEGO logo are trademarks of the LEGO Group. © 2015The LEGO Group. All rights reserved. This project is neither related to nor endorsed by the The LEGOgroup.

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References

[1] The LEGO™ Group, ‘LEGO™ web site’, http://www.lego.com/.[2] The ATLAS Collaboration, ‘ATLAS Collaboration web site’, http://www.atlas.ch/.[3] S. Mehlhase, ‘Build Your Own Particle Detector web site’,

http://www.build-your-own-particle-detector.org/.[4] CERN, ‘CERN web site’, http://www.cern.ch/.[5] The ALICE Collaboration, ‘ALICE Collaboration web site’, http://www.atlas.ch/.[6] The CMS Collaboration, ‘CMS Collaboration web site’, http://cern.ch/cms.[7] The LHCb Collaboration, ‘LHCb Collaboration web site’, http://cern.ch/lhcb.[8] ‘Niels Bohr Institute web site’, http://www.nbi.dk/.[9] The LEGO™ Group, ‘LEGO™ Digital Designer web site’, http://ldd.lego.com/.

[10] ‘ATLAS mini LEGO Ideas web site’, https://ideas.lego.com/projects/21619.[11] ‘I F**cking Love Science Facebook page’,

https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience.[12] ‘Deutsches Museum Bonn web site’, http://www.deutsches-museum-bonn.de/.[13] ‘Melbourne Planetarium web site’, http://museumvictoria.com.au/planetarium/.[14] ‘Palais de la Découverte web site’, http://www.palais-decouverte.fr/.[15] ‘Passeport Big Bang web site’, http://passeport-big-bang.web.cern.ch/en.[16] ‘LHC micro LEGO Ideas web site’, https://ideas.lego.com/projects/94885.[17] ‘Build Your Own Particle Detector Facebook page’,

https://www.facebook.com/BuildYourOwnParticleDetector.

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