Activities
Each participating group will plan its own event. Events may include activities such as cosmic particle discussions, news about the latest research, or even direct measurement and/or data analysis of cosmic particles. The following formats can be used:
- Lectures
- Masterclasses or Masterclasses@home
- Video broadcast to the classroom
- Assignments that students can complete at school or at home
On this page you will find some ideas for different activities for your event. We will also announce events that all people from around the world can attend, such as lectures via livestream. Feel free to suggest activities as well. There are no limits to your ideas.
At the end of the day, it would be great if you could summarize your work during the day and your findings on cosmic rays in a proceeding (see Organisation). We will include your contribution in a booklet and make it available to all participants.
Video Calls
We organise Video Calls where groups can share their results and findings. In the Video Calls, students can present their results to each other, ask each other questions, and discuss new findings. For more information, see the Organisation section (Registration required for access).
Online Introductions
We are pleased to offer online lectures on cosmic rays. In these videos we explain...
Videos from Dr. Becky
On the ICD 2022, we welcomed Rebecca Smethrust as our special guest in our Welcome Call! She is an astrophysicist at Oxford University where she studies supermassive black holes. Her YouTube channel Dr. Becky has more than 500 thousand followers. In her videos, she shows us what her everyday life as a scientist is like and takes us on a fantastic journey through our universe. Here we have listed two of our favorite videos from Becky. Check out her YouTube channel to see more videos from her!
We also offer different types of data analysis for different tools and projects:
Data Analysis with Cosmic@Web
On the Cosmic@Web learning platform, we make public cosmic-ray data available, along with background information, descriptions of the experiments, explanations of the data sets, and hints on how to interpret them. For more details, see the Cosmic@Web tutorial. Also take a look at our contribution to the 36th and 37th International Cosmic Ray Conferences:
And check out the Cosmic@Web video from 2021:
Data Analysis by OCRA
The INFN OCRA collaboration provides a series of online activities for cosmic ray data analysis on its webpage (only available in Italian): https://web.infn.it/OCRA/in-laboratorio-con-noi/. After an introduction on various techniques for the detection of cosmic rays with experiments on the Earth, a laboratory section offers the possibility to analyse the data of real experiments, from educational activities like a cosmic ray telescope located in a Naples metro station to data from experiments dedicated to frontier research, like the Auger observatory in the Argentinian pampa.
Data Analysis by EEE Project
The EEE Project collaboration prepared an analysis activity on the data collected both by the POLA-R detector located at Ny Alesund (Svalbard, Norway) and by some EEE telescopes installed in Italian High Schools. For this ICD edition the EEE students will be engaged in the analysis of the data collected during the intense Solar Flare on May 10th 2024. During the day, together with presentations by cosmic rays experts, students will present the results of the analyses. More information at https://agenda.centrofermi.it/event/256/.
Data Analysis with KCDC
KCDC (KASCADE Cosmic Ray Data Centre) is a public data centre for high-energy astroparticle physics based on the data of the KASCADE experiment. KCDC offers a wide range of resources, including the outreach ones. The tutorials and examples at KCDC’s website represent a compilation of interesting lessons within the vast field of cosmic radiation to illustrate the processes within and outside of our atmosphere by means of the data sets of the KASCADE experiment. On the KCDC's JupyterLab one can find some tutorials, based on KASCADE, TRVO and and IceCube data samples. For more details, see the KCDC analysis instruction:
In between, get creative with one of our contests and take part in a Kahoot! quiz:
Drawing contest
Draw your favorite cosmic particle. Post it on Facebook and use the hashtag #InternationalCosmicDay. The best one will get a prize!
2023 Pozzi Lorenzo from Liceo Respighi created this picture and won:
Selfie contest
Take a selfie of you with your detector or your favorite Cosmic Ray plot. Post it on Facebook and use the hashtag #InternationalCosmicDay. The best one will get a prize!
For inspiration, the winning photo of 2023, a group from CMU Thailand:
Quiz
Are you ready to dive into the fascinating world of cosmic particles? Join us for an exciting Kahoot Quiz designed to challenge and expand your understanding of these mysterious messengers from space. The PIN is 05980865. Let's see who will be the world's best expert on cosmic particles!
Booklet
As at a real scientific conference, all contributions will be documented in writing afterwards. Write your proceeding about your work and results on cosmic rays. We will bundle all proceedings in a booklet and make it available to you. More information will be available after Registration.