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SCIENTIFIC LUNA PARK: INFN organizes a laboratory for students in “Italia in Miniatura”
The Italy in Miniature park (Viserba, RIMINI) has been trying for years to combine a fun park with a didactic effort addressed to schools of every order and grade, from elementary to high school. So to the historical attractions of the park (Italy and Europe with the miniatures of the most important monuments, the boat through Venice, the Piazza Italia with its friendly inhabitants) and the typical games (canoes, rides, sling shots , Cannonacqua ….) for many years educational workshops have been organized specifically designed for students of all ages. The workshops deal with different topics, from the Italian Constitution to the history of the unification of Italy, from food to environmental education, from road education to the history of architecture. Particularly important is the interest in physics with a science funfair that hosts numerous physics experiments and educational workshops / shows on fluids, waves, optical illusions. In this context, a collaboration has started between INFN and Italia in Miniatura for a laboratory called: “LHC – The Electronic Eye: a journey to discover the High Energy Physics”. The aim is to explain what LHC is, why it is an important tool for knowledge of matter and forces and how we do it the experiments. For this occasion, the INFN, with the support of the general technical, mechanical and electronic services, have designed some simple tools that accompany the guide on the journey through the LHC.
A “shower for cosmic” that illustrates to the boys that we are continuously crossed by particles that come from the sky (it’s a real shower-box!). A “train driver’s table” where a group of kids drops some balls / particles from a ramp and, through some moving magnets, tries to deflect the “particle” towards a target-experiment. When the experiment is struck, the other boys, divided into groups, “reconstruct” the events (real event displays kindly provided by the various ALICE, ATLAS and CMS collaborations). In the end, after a brief study of the events, the boys send one representative per group to a mini-conference in which they illustrate what was observed in the events. Some contour slides guide the kids through accelerators, quarks, forces.

We also provide a “cosmic catcher”, two rackets with scintillators that the boys can direct / move / approach at will to find out if the cosmic come from all over or not ….Talking to the kids about what we do is always an interesting experience, but this time two additional stimuli have been added: the modality (not a simple lesson but a laboratory that involves them) and the relationship with the enthusiastic curator of the Italy-in-Miniature project, Dr. M. Pilu (graduated in Bologna!).