Science education trough cosmic ray experiments in high schools

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Science educationtrough cosmic ray
experimentsin high schools
V. Popa, ISS Bucharest
Carpathian Summer School of Physics 2007 Sinaia,
Romania, August 20th-31st, 2007
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The basic idea involve high school students and
teachers in a network of simple-minded, easy to
build, maintain and use, Cosmic Ray Detectors.
Make science education, but also research, by
expanding the network at a large scale.
The original idea was implemented from 98 by the
Alberta University, Edmonton, Canada (Jim
Pinfold) ALTA (Alberta Large Time Coincidence
Array).
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GPS
LED
PM
DAQ
Plastic scintillator
?
Local station
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Properties an ALTA-like Detector

• LOCAL COINCIDENCE obtained using local system and
  hardwired electronics. Allows pointing of shower
  direction to ? 2-gt3 degrees.
• GPS TIME STAMP is obtained when a local
  coincidence occurs. Timing is good to 15 ns
• MIP SENSITIVITY. Each detector should respond to
  a single MIP.
• ENERGY THRESHOLD for a local detector with a 10m
  triangle is 1014 eV (from Corsika)
• OFFLINE TRIGGER timed stamped local
  coincidences, or events, are stored for various
  offline studies.

Average size Of a 1014 ev shower
10m
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How to use that? Physics Educational goals
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CR Physics could be fascinating for students

• The Sun
• Solar Wind
• Low Energy lt 10 GeV
• Supernovae
• Capable of accelerating particles to
  1015eV
• AGNs / GRBs
• Possible sources for
• UHECRs
• Exotic UHECR Sources
• Top Downsolutions
• (topological defects),
• SUSY, VHE Neutrinos,
• Monopoles, etc.

Cosmic Strings
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giving them hands-on experience, they will learn
not only CR physics, but also how to build and
use a radiation detector, how to analyze data,
how to use Internet for other than chat games
and they will find out how science works, and get
used to belong to a large community.
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The ALTA idea spread first in North America
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NALTA Sites in North America
CANLACT
CANLACT
ALTA
BC-ALTA
CANLACT
CANLACT
CROP
SCROD
WALTA
CosRayHS
CosRayHS
SALTA
CosRayHS
CHICOS
Detectors in place
TECOSE
CosRayHS
In preparation
Mexico City, etc.)
In planning
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From 2000 several European countries started to
develop similar detector arrays. Some are already
operational (involving high schools), other in an
initial development stage
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SkyView (BUW)
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Roland Maze (IPJ, Lodz)
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HELYCON (Hellenic Open U.)
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ALTA
SEASA
HiSPARK
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Coordination at European level needed
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FOM-NIKHEF
U Sheffield
ULB
KTH
CTU
European cosmic ray science education network
U Århus
U Alcalá
U Jiväskylä
MEPhI
Discovering, understanding and enjoying Science
trough Experimentation
BUW
ISS
HOU
U Catania
IPJ
LIP
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Some of the EuroCosmics Objectives

• A computer network connecting clusters of
  detectors, GPS-antennae and local data servers to
  a central server and data base.
• Standards for safe, robust, cost-effective and
  easy-to-handle instruments which can be made and
  operated by high-school stdents.
• Standard data formats
• Web-based tools for data storage and access
• Digital archives for technical and educational
  materials
• Knowledge transfer, including the EuroCosmics
  web site and a Summer Academy for high-school
  teachers, and regional meetings for students.

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