ALICE in Public Outreach and Bricks

TL;DR

This paper describes the development of a LEGO model of the ALICE detector through an online workshop, engaging young people in particle physics and collaborative design over six months, culminating in a large-scale physical assembly.

Contribution

It introduces a novel online collaborative approach to designing a detailed LEGO model of a particle physics detector for educational outreach.

Findings

Successful online collaboration in complex model design

Engagement of youth in particle physics concepts

Creation of a 16,000-piece LEGO ALICE detector model

Abstract

In the last two years various existing public outreach activities in ALICE have been adapted for online usage, this includes the well established particle physics masterclasses but also virtual visits to ALICE. Based on these foundations a six month online workshop was carried out in 2021 with the goal to design a LEGO model of the ALICE detector at the LHC at the scale of a typical minifigure (ca. 1:40) and to motivate young people for a long term online collaboration in a particle physics project. The design stage of the model took half a year with regular online design sessions accompanied by input on 3D construction, detector technology, the physics questions of ALICE, virtual ALICE visits, and particle physics masterclasses. This stage provided first-hand experience on the dynamics of working on different sub-projects in a research collaboration and resulted in a model with more than 16 000 parts that was assembled by the participants during one weekend in an in-person workshop. The experience gained during this construction has been used further by the young designers to optimise the model over the period of another year.