Thanks to the EEE Project this year, within the activities organized for the activity of Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro, students of two Licei from Liguria had the opportunity to take part in the stage at the CERN of Geneva from the 25th of February to the 3rd of March. The project “Extreme Energy Events (EEE) – La Scienza nelle Scuole” is a special research activity invented by professor Antonino Zichichi. Funded and managed by “Museo Storico per la Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi”” of Rome with the collaboration of CERN, INFN and MIUR, it focuses on the study and the research of the cosmic rays, with the fundamental aid of all the students and teachers of the Secondary Schools that take part in the project. The two Licei are amongst almost 100 schools, 52 of which have in their buildings a telescope for the measurement of tracks of muonic particles that constitute the majority of the cosmic rays. Ten boys and girls, half from Liceo Chiabrera – Martini of Savona and half from Liceo Calasanzio of Carcare (SV), took part, at CERN, under the supervision of the teachers and the tutor Stefano Grazzi of Centro Fermi, in the building of the Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC), which constitutes the very heart of the revelator in the telescopes. The activity of Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro allowed the students to experience the collaboration with researchers from all over the world and to live the true atmosphere of CERN, one of the most important venues for the studies on the elementary particles. Besides, apart from the work in the laboratory, they visited the Synchrocyclotron (SC), the first accelerator at CERN, which accelerated protons at 600 GeV and the relevator of the ALICE experiment at LHC (the Large Hadron Collider) where are present, among the others, pieces of equipment similar to those built by the students themselves. They saw also the “Globe” and the “Microcosm”, the two permanent exhibitions at CERN. The international environment gave students the opportunity not only to improve their language skills in English, but also to test their ability to adapt to new situations and solve problems distant from their everyday lives. The week ended with the interview to Maria Fidecaro, one of the most experienced scientists at CERN, who kindly answered the questions of the young students, encouraging them to pursue their goals and never lose their curiosity for science and the enthusiasm that they showed in those days. Here are some impressions of the boys and girls when they came back at school: «I still can’t believe to have had such an incredible experience. CERN is the living proof that a collaboration between the nations, in a climate of peace and reciprocal faith, is possible and very effective, this is the only way to make science and share it with all the people we can reach». And also: «What a week! Finally we had the opportunity to practice all the theory that we study at school on books and we also discovered a lot of new things. We have interacted with people of totally different cultures and habits and it taught us to collaborate and work with them: there were people from Belarus, China and South Corea and yet our commune aim helped us joining our strengths to reach our aim. It has been wonderful to overcome our differences to get the work done».
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