EI STFC Power of Light animation - introducing Big Questions and Diamond Light Source

The ‘Power of Light’ project brings together research scientists, higher institution educators and research fellows, teachers, and STEM ambassadors to co-create engaging and accessible resources. The Power of Light project creates opportunities for classrooms and community settings to investigate examples of scientists’ current innovative research that is taking place in UK’s national synchrotron science facility at Diamond Light Source.

This co-created animation identifies examples of Big Questions, introduces the synchrotron, and the value of exploring very small elements in our world to inform our thikning about Big Questions. During pilot sessions in both classroom and community settings, the animation has been successfully engaging curious minds and introducing areas of scientific research that can be explored further through the Power of Light 'zines'. This resource encourages a dialogue about the value of working in multidisciplinary ways to build and use knowledge in epistemically insightful ways.

The particle accelerator at Diamond enables scientists to investigate the complexity of relationships in the structures of ‘things’ by investigating how atoms behave. The scientists we have been working with explain that they enter an area of research with a defined question that scientific methods and the facilities at Diamond can help them investigate. During their scientific research into a precise question further, and often unexpected, lines of enquiry can be disclosed. The Power of Light project confirms that learning about science (and how building scientific knowledge ‘works’) takes us on a journey of discovery about being human and the nature of the world around us.