“Discovering cosmic rays”: a link between education and research in a high school physics teachers’ course

This contribution describes the course “Discovering cosmic rays” for inservice high school physics teachers, organized in the context of the Italian Plan for Resilience and Recovery (PNRR) “CTA+” program. Proposed as part of the OCRA (Outreach Cosmic Ray Activities) activity, the 3-day course was held at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Italy in December 2023. The teachers built a compact and effective muon telescope in the laboratory, the Cosmic Ray Cube (CRC), designed by LNGS-INFN. After a lesson on data analysis and measurement of atmospheric muon flux, the teachers developed original educational pathways, creating a concrete output ready to be implemented in the classroom.