Abstract:

In the present work the outreach activity developed in the OCRA project dedicated to teachers of mathematics and physics and science of upper secondary schools will be described.

The OCRA (Outreach Cosmic Ray Activities) project was born in 2018 within the National Institute of Nuclear Physics INFN with the aim of gathering the many public engagement activities already developed in the local INFN divisions to disseminate them to national and international level in the field of astroparticle physics. Amongst the various activities within the project a series of online laboratories has been developed. The various paths, present on the project website https://web.infn.it/OCRA/, introduce the discovery of cosmic rays through the analysis of data from real scientific experiments. It is therefore possible for any reader, passionate or curious even without specific training, to compare their own work with the analysis conducted by the researchers and reproduce them with commonly used software.

The OCRA website has been developed with particular attention in order to be used by students but above all by teachers, since it has been enriched with a section specially developed with all the regulatory references of the Ministry of Education that solicits collaboration between the various areas of knowledge, school, university and research, in order to enhance operational capabilities and deepen the characteristic procedures of scientific thought also thanks to the IT tools currently available. The choice to base all the activities on the experimental dimension is aimed at supporting the students also in a university orientation path and at overcoming the boundaries of the various disciplinary fields.

Teachers will be able to find on the website the data sheets of all the paths that can be replicated in full or redefined according to the characteristics of the students they are proposing them to. In addition, they can refer to the collection of bibliographic references in order to deepen the themes present in each activity.

Ample space is also given:
- to the analysis of learning dynamics and teaching methodologies centred on the importance of the use of the tools in laboratory activities,
- to the construction of meanings which is closely linked both to the tools used in the various activities
- to relational interactions that are developed in teaching both among peers and between teacher and students.

In the spring of 2021, OCRA proposed a refresher course for teachers in the scientific field, centred precisely on the activities on the webpage. The more than 70 teachers who participated then filled in an evaluation questionnaire to measure the teaching effectiveness of the proposals and the impact on teaching activities.

In our work the most significant results of the questionnaires will be presented briefly.

Keywords:

Technology, research projects, astroparticles, learning-teaching methodologies, refresh course for teachers.