2 April 2023 I have a confession. In order to put together my introduction for this edition of Abingdon News, I asked Chat GPT for some help. You may well have come across Chat GPT already - a powerful AI-based language model that can help students and staff with a variety of tasks, from researching and writing papers to communicating and collaborating with their peers (as Chat GPT describes itself). I have to admit that Chat GPT did a pretty good job - certainly a good enough job to highlight that technology continues to develop apace and that we need to prepare our students for a rapidly changing digital world. We embrace innovation in our curriculum and you can read more about our approach to digital education inside this edition. We also believe that our students benefit from being imbued with the traditional values that underpin life at our ancient school, such as diligence, integrity and generosity of spirit. This instils the moral platform that will allow them to make the most of the opportunities that modern technology will bring. I also want our students to grasp that they have the opportunity to shape technology and make sure it leads to a better world rather than simply feeling that they are consumers at the mercy of fads and trends. With that sense of agency, together with an understanding of their responsibility to make the world a better place, our students will thrive and prosper. Abingdon News Message from the Headmaster Physics trip to Geneva At the start of the Christmas break, a group of Physics students travelled to Geneva to visit scientific facilities in the region, learn about the historical significance of Switzerland in the development of science and to see the cutting edge technology that is pushing forward the boundaries of modern physics. Amongst the highlights was a visit to the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is located. The world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator made headlines in July 2012 with the discovery of the Higgs boson. The students also visited the Geneva plasma physics centre and found out more about how nuclear fusion in power plants such as ITER and DEMO is achieved; the Geneva Observatory which houses modern telescopes and is responsible for finding exoplanets; the Verbois hydroelectric dam which, along with two other hydroelectric dams, produces 56% of Swiss electricity; and the EPFL university in Lausanne.
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