In March 2017 our colleagues from the University of Geneva presented SENSE at the TecDay at college Rousseau within a module on “The messengers of the Universe”.
TecDays is an initiative of the SATW (Schweizerische Akademie der Technischen Wissenschaften) to promote technical understanding and stimulate curiosity about technical and scientific training at secondary schools all over Switzerland. In different modules the fascination of technology and science is made accessible for young people. The modules are presented by individuals from industry, universities and research institutes and within 90 minutes an interactive presentation of their working field is offered to the students.
During the presentation of SENSE at the TecDay an introductory talk was given by Theresa Montaruli from Italy on the different messengers and also new astronomies with gamma-rays and neutrinos were discussed. Afterwards she presented the neutrino experiment IceCube and the gamma-ray experiment CTA was shown by Imen Al Samari from Iran. With an experiment prepared by Dr. Andrii Nagai from Ukraine a measurement of cosmic ray muons was performed also demonstrating the usage of a low-light level detector. The muons were measured using a 1m plastic scintillator bar that is coupled on both ends to SiPM detectors whose signal is visualized using an oscilloscope. To separate the signal of cosmic ray muons from detector noise signals the detectors are read out in coincidence mode. Then the rate of cosmic ray muons can be measured as a function of the inclination of the scintillator bar.
At the Tec Day the module was met with high interest and more than 50 students took part. A presentation of the module in other schools is planned for the future.
The action is part of SENSE Work Package 4 “Training and Learning”.