Senior School

Year 12 Physics at the Australian Synchrotron

On Monday 17th August, our Year 12 VCE Physics class spent the day at the Australian Synchrotron in Clayton, taking part in the ANSTO “Interactions of Light and Matter” laboratory program.

The Synchrotron is one of Australia’s most significant pieces of scientific infrastructure — a particle accelerator the size of a football field that produces light millions of times brighter than the sun, used by researchers in medicine, materials science and archaeology.

Working in a purpose-built teaching laboratory alongside ANSTO staff, the 21 students completed a full day of experimental work directly linked to their Unit 4 studies. They investigated single and double slit diffraction and interference, measured the photoelectric effect by varying both the intensity and frequency of incident light, and used diffraction gratings to record and analyse the emission spectra of different gases. Concepts that can feel abstract on the whiteboard — wave-particle duality, quantised energy levels, Planck’s constant — became measurable quantities with real data attached.

The day also included a guided tour of the facility itself, giving students a look at working beamlines and the research being carried out on site.

Our thanks to the ANSTO and PrimeSCI! teams for an outstanding program, and congratulations to our students, whose engagement and conduct throughout the day were exemplary.