Format and sharing of data & scientific investigations with students…. With apologies in advance for perhaps not fulfilling our mandate! And apologies for any misinterpretations on my part!

Thoughts Real “science” is not the most important aspect The scientific process is the most important: demonstrated through the construction, operation, debugging of cosmic ray detectors Subsequent analysis & interpretation of data, as well as comparisons of measurements between the players is equally valuable Focus on the teachers – training in particle physics, fundamental research, scientific process Physics teaching in many countries ends at the beginning of the 20th century – in contrast to e.g. biology Cross-border interactions very important

Thoughts (cont.) Ideally build-upon the existing network of cosmic ray detectors in the different countries But also need to account for countries that do not have their own detectors (or perhaps not many) Many data already available (e.g. Quarknet) through a simple web interface Building a common data format & making the data from all participants available is relatively easy Just need some person power

Proposal: “Cosmic Ray Boot Camp” ~50 Teachers from all around Europe (perhaps grouped by language) come to CERN from one week, near to the start of term Day 1: each teacher given a briefcase kit containing the instructions and all the parts necessary to build a cosmic ray detector They build it, and set it up somewhere around the CERN site Days 2 & 3: introductions to fundamental physics, CERN etc. Day 4: First analysis of the cosmic ray detectors that have been built Debugging, fixing etc. Data interpretation, understanding Comparison of results obtained to (perhaps) cosmic results from LHC detectors etc. Day 5: dismantle the detectors & pack them up Teachers then take them away to their school for 3 months

Proposal Pt 2 During the three months the teachers & students build the detector and operate it Towards the end of the three months a series of video conferences between high schools (a la EPPOG Masterclasses) take place, to compare results on (e.g.) cosmic rates vs: Location Time Weather Of course the schools that have other detector types should be included in these video conferences

Proposal pt3 Development of a suitable “cosmic briefcase” Support for their operation, debugging, maintenance etc. Support for the teacher training Support for teacher travel Support for video conferences etc. Support from CERN to host the teachers ……………..

Comments from the audience Very CERN-centric (possibly for good reasons) No real incorporation of existing cosmic ray detectors (apart from the video conference idea) Would be better to have national teaching programs too – to pass-on the knowledge CERN should invest time/money on the development of the “cosmic briefcase”

Comments from Dave “proposal” was dreamt-up by two people (essentially) five minutes before the de-briefing session (based, of course, on the discussions beforehand) Many people pointed out “problems” with the proposal – but no-one dismissed it out of hand! So it must have some merit! CERN is a natural base for the activities in the short term but this does not mean it should not evolve

Rough costing in Euros Assuming 50 kits + 50x3 teacher programs per year: Hardware: 50 x 2.5k = 125k Hardware repairs (~10% per year): 40k Hardware maintenance (1 full time person): 75k Teacher training Travel: 1.5k x 50 x 6 x 3 (two trips per teacher) = 1350k Teaching the teachers (assume 4 people for one month each per year): 10k x 4 x 3 = 120k Total = 1710k for three years