The questions about the origin and type of cosmic particles are not only fascinating for scientists in astrophysics, but also for young enthusiastic high school students. To familiarize them with research in astroparticle physics, the Pierre Auger Collaboration agreed to make 1% of its data publicly available. The Pierre Auger Observatory investigates cosmic rays at the highest energies and consists of more than 1600 water Cherenkov detectors, located near Malargüe, Argentina. With publicly available data from the experiment, students can perform their own hands-on analysis. In the framework of a so-called Astroparticle Masterclass organized alongside the context of the German outreach network Netzwerk Teilchenwelt, students get a valuable insight into cosmic ray physics and scientific research concepts. We present the project and experiences with students.
Maria Krause, Hans-Peter Bretz, Lew Classen, Markus Holler, Moritz Hütten, Susanne Raab, Julian Rautenberg, Anneli Schulz
(Submitted on 17 Aug 2015)
Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherlands, PoS(ICRC2015)304
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Physics Education (physics.ed-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:1508.03968 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:1508.03968v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Maria Krause
[v1] Mon, 17 Aug 2015 10:30:23 GMT (2930kb,D)
http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.03968