STUDENTS from Haslingden High School went to the cutting edge laboratory for physics research CERN to whet their appetite for further study.
Fifteen Year 12 students flew to Switzerland to tour the centre for nuclear research and museum.
The students were given a guided tour around CERN by Dr Mike Tyrell, a retired British Physicist who helped to build the original particle accelerator in the 1970s.
Jacob Ashworth, 17, said: “We learnt about experiments that they have carried out at CERN and it made me think that there are some really clever people out there.”
Ben Blackburn, 16, said: “We learnt about how they accelerate particles by using different magnets and we learnt about the process of super cooling to make superconductors, but what can go wrong is pretty scary.
“We also got to see bending magnets where it bends the beam around a curve. It was definitely interesting, but I don’t know if I will ever be clever enough to work there.”
The laboratory is built on the edge of Switzerland and France and the large Hadron Collider is 27km long going underground beneath both countries.
As well as sightseeing in Geneva they got to chill out at a water park and visited the United Nations building.
The five-day trip was led by Physics teacher Phil Rawlinson who said: “This is the third time that we have visited CERN as a school and we had a lot of talented physicists in the group.
“The guide that was with us was constantly questioning the students to make sure they understood and they rose to the challenge. He commented on how impressed he was with the knowledge that they had.”