BiH Teachers on Their First Visit to CERN, Birthplace of the Internet and Site of the Discovery of the "God Particle"

A small group of teachers from Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently staying at the world's largest laboratory, the famous CERN near Geneva, right on the border between Switzerland and France, and a reporter from the Klix.ba portal is following their journey.

A group of 20 teachers from Bosnia and Herzegovina has travelled to the headquarters of the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, where they are taking part in the First Bosnian-Herzegovinian CERN Teacher Programme. The aim of the visit is to introduce teachers from BiH to current research in particle physics, and they will then pass on their experience to their students – the future physicists and engineers.

CERN is known as the home of the world's largest particle accelerator, the birthplace of the internet and the laboratory where the existence of the so-called God particle was confirmed.

By travelling to Geneva and to what is probably the laboratory that symbolises the progress of scientific Europe after the Second World War, the teachers have the opportunity to see first-hand the possibilities for cooperation between Bosnian-Herzegovinian scientists, professors, teachers and students and an organisation created, among other things, to broaden the horizons of young generations.

A true scientific mood prevails among the teachers, and as they told Klix.ba, alongside important information, experiences and unforgettable encounters with physicists, a long-held conviction has crystallised – that Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a society and a state, is at the very bottom when it comes to readiness to help nurture talent. This visit is a light in the otherwise dark tunnel of everyday life in BiH.

Bojana Beatović from the “Vasilije Ostroški” Secondary School Centre told Klix.ba that she had learned about the unique programme at CERN through social media.

“I want to broaden my knowledge and see what is happening in science today. What I have seen so far is better than I expected. I could not have known, for example, how the experiments explained to us here work. When I return, I will present to the children what I have seen here, and I will also pass the experience on to my colleagues,” said Beatović, who is a mathematics teacher.

Her colleague from Bijeljina, Jelena Milanović, from the “Mihailo Pupin” Technical School, came to CERN expecting to receive more detailed information about the accelerator.

"Besides what I bring back to the children, I would like them to take part in communication with CERN, to exchange experiences and to come here themselves and get first-hand information,” said Milanović.

The teachers stressed that it is very important that our people are also at CERN, and that this is a special encouragement for children, showing them that people from Bosnia and Herzegovina can also succeed.

Admir Greljo, a doctor of elementary particle physics working at CERN, said that Bosnia and Herzegovina has a long way to go to significantly improve cooperation between our country and CERN, and that the key lies with the authorities, who need to see the benefits of investing in science.

At CERN, the teachers will have the opportunity to visit the largest particle detectors and the antimatter factory, and to talk with eminent experts from our region about current progress in physics.

These bearers of knowledge from all over BiH will spend this week at CERN, and a Klix.ba journalist will report on this unique event. This historic educational moment, as far as cooperation between CERN and Bosnia and Herzegovina is concerned, was supported, in addition to CERN itself, by ANNT, the Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology.

ANNT, as the organiser of the First Bosnian-Herzegovinian Programme for Physics Teachers at CERN, thanks the socially responsible companies that supported this project: Mistral Technologies, Konica Minolta poslovna rješenja BH, Dobojputevi dd (sponsors), as well as AtlantBH, Kamer commerce PJ Plus computers, Racional and MPS (friends of the project).

Source: klix.ba