A Proposal For Cosmic Ray Studies Involving Collaborations Between Higher Education, Research Sites and Local Area High Schools

This is a proposal for a collaboration between the INFN, the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Catania, and local area high schools, aimed at carrying out experimental studies in cosmic ray physics. The purpose of the collaboration is to investigate the possible involvement of high schools sites in studies related to nuclear and high energy experimental physics, and the educational aspects of such involvement. According to the idea outlined in the present proposal, the INFN/University Department site will act as a central data collection and processing institution, managing an array of scintillator-based detectors. Each high school joining the project could handle its own detector for cosmic muons, with the overall set of detectors resulting in a large array allowing the study of both local properties of the cosmic muon flux and large area correlations as well. A basic introduction to the different physics items which could be investigated in this framework is given in the present document, together with some technical aspects on how to carry out such measurements. The role of the educational aspects of the proposal is also stressed.