Science educationScience educationtrough cosmic ray experimentstrough cosmic ray experiments

in high schoolsin high schools

Carpathian Summer School of Physics 2007

Sinaia, Romania, August 20th-31st, 2007

V. Popa, ISS Bucharest

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).

DAQ

Plastic scintillator

PMLED

GPS

Local station

Central (cluster) control

?

Properties an ALTA-like Detector

• LOCAL COINCIDENCE obtained using local system and hardwired electronics. Allows pointing of shower direction to 2->3 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.

10m

Average sizeOf a 1014 ev shower

How to use that? Physics & Educational goals

Physics:

Time coincidences: mapping the sky in V(U)HECR(Extensive Air Showers with local coincidences and Giant AS with coincidences between sites)

Single muon rates: seasonal variations, correlations with the atmospheric pressure, large electromagnetic storms early warning (Forbush effect)

Education:

“… to increase the number of students completing a scientific or technical study in 2010 by 15%” (Lisbon, 2000)

CR Physics could be fascinating for CR Physics could be fascinating for

students…students… The Sun

Solar WindLow Energy < 10 GeV

SupernovaeCapable of accelerating particles to ~1015eV

AGNs / GRBs …Possible sources for UHECRs

Exotic UHECR Sources “Top Down”solutions (topological defects),

SUSY, VHE Neutrinos,Monopoles, etc. Cosmic Strings

…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.

The ALTA idea spread first in North America…

NALTA – Sites in North America

TECOSECHICOS

WALTA

BC-ALTA ALTA

CROP

SALTA

SCROD

CosRayHS CosRayHS

CosRayHS

CANLACT

CANLACT

CosRayHS

CANLACTCANLACT

Mexico City, etc.)

Detectors in place

In planning

In preparation

From ~ 2000 several European countries started to develop similar detector arrays. Some are already operational (involving high schools), other in an initial development stage…

HiSPARC

OCRECZELTA

DUKS

ASDA

SkyView

HELYCONCCREA

Roland Maze

TRC

RoALTA

DEMOS

RENATO

SEASA

CREATE

HiSPARC (FOM-NIKHEF)

SkyView (BUW)

Roland Maze (IPJ, Lodz)

HELYCON (Hellenic Open U.)

ALTA

SEASA

HiSPARK

Coordination at European level needed…

FOM-NIKHEF

ULBCTU

U Århus

U Jiväskylä

BUW

HOU

U CataniaIPJLIP

ISS

MEPhI

U Alcalá

KTHU Sheffield

European cosmic ray science education network

“Discovering, understanding and enjoying Science troughExperimentation”

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.