Outreach
In addition to research activities, the INFN is conducting a variety of initiatives aimed at disseminating scientific culture, especially in the fields of research closest to the Institute’s core mission. Great attention is paid to school-age boys and girls and their teachers. This pursuit stems from the conviction that it is a duty to tell and share not only the scientific results but also the efforts, work and technology that have led or are leading to their achievement. These experiences, if shared with younger people, can help shape new generations that are more aware of what scientific research represents for the evolution of society, and can guide to those who want to embark on the research path.
The INFN body that has been set up to coordinate this outreach work is called the Third Mission Coordination Committee (CC3M). The Committee is chaired by Dr. Pierluigi Paolucci (Napoli Division) and is made up of representatives from all other INFN divisions.
CC3M Contact person for the Rome section
Alba FormicolaInternal work area
Reserved pages on the national wiki (password access).
These pages are available in Italian only.
Dissemination initiatives of the Rome Section
The staff of the Rome Division is involved in the following activities and initiatives, classified by labels:
PCTO these are projects aimed at the three-year period of upper secondary schools and are recognized by the Ministry of Education as part of the activities for transversal skills and orientation courses (Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e l'Orientamento). The schools that join the PCTO-INFN projects sign a specific agreement with the organisation, which regulates the methods of carrying out the activity, the commitment required from the parties and the rights and duties of the parties regarding safety.
SCUOLA these are projects aimed at schools that are not included in PCTO programs (as they are also suitable for primary, lower secondary and two-year upper secondary students); however, it is possible to include the activities in the PTOF (Three-Year Training Offer Plans) of the Institutes (without it being necessary to pay any charge to the Institution). The proposed activities are varied both in terms of the contents proposed and the methods of delivery: they can be aimed at individual classes, parallel classes or the entire school community; they can be carried out during or outside school hours, at the school premises or at the INFN headquarters; they can be one-time events or part of learning paths consisting of several meetings; they can be conducted through seminar-lessons, recreational activities or laboratory activities.
CC3M these are projects of national importance included in the list of activities financed and validated by the Coordination Committee for the Third Mission of the INFN.
EVENTI these are scientific dissemination projects which, due to their content and organisation, are well suited to being included in events and manifestations (such as Science Festivals, European Researchers' Night, Thematic Days, ...), both in programs with periodic frequency and in one-off initiatives; they can be aimed at schools (teachers and students) or the general public.
Art & Science SCUOLA PCTO CC3M ▽
Art & Science is a European project of the CREATIONS network (H2020) included in the PCTO programs of MIUR. The project is organized together with CERN and aims to promote scientific culture among younger people by combining the languages of art and science. It is aimed at male and female secondary school students. INFN and university researchers lead, through seminars and guided tours of museums or science laboratories, activities designed to stimulate the production of an artwork inspired by the proposed scientific content. The works are displayed during an exhibition open to the public set up at a prestigious art venue in the relevant city. For the 2018-2020 edition, the exhibition was set up at “Mattatoio” in Rome and welcomed about 4,000 visitors. The 2021-22 edition exhibition was held at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni with about 1,300 visitors (it was in COVID period). A prize, consisting of a week-long master's program at CERN on the subjects of art and science, goes to the authors of the most outstanding works.
The local coordinator of the initiative is Dr. Giulia D'Imperio.
Giovanni Organtini is a member of the national scientific committee.
Website: https://artandscience.infn.it/
Dark is a project of scientific dissemination of dark matter, addressed both to high school and university students, and to a general public. It consists in the organisation of seminars, debates and master classes focusing on the main experiments involved in the hunt for dark matter. After a pilot project implemented in some high schools, the first national master class was held on 30/10/2020 on the occasion of Dark Matter Day. The event involved about 500 students from schools all over Italy, with introductory seminars and a competitive drill based on the analysis of a simplified version of data collected by Darkside-50. The local coordinator of the initiative is Dr. Valerio Ippolito.
HEPscape: High Energy Physics Escape Room SCUOLA CC3M EVENTI ▽
HEPscape! is the first particle physics themed Escape Room, letting people discover, thanks to games and team play, the physics experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider (HC) in Geneva, the largest particle accelerator in the world so far. Thanks to this Escape Room the players can learn the working principle of a particle accelerator, the features of a typical high energy physics experiment, which kind of particles this can look for and how to. A map with hints, challenges and many revelations is guiding the visitors through the wonderful world of particle physics. Participants will enter a real LHC control room, from which they will travel through space and time.
Local coordinator: Matteo Bauce.
National coordinator: Livia Soffi,
Francesca Cavallari.
Ideators: Livia Soffi,
Chiara Rovelli,
Francesca Cavallari.
INFN Kids SCUOLA CC3M EVENTI ▽
INFN Kids is an initiative targeting primary school and junior high school girls and boys. The initiative aim at making them passionate about physics, possibly together with their teachers and parents.
INFN researchers go to local schools and discuss different physics topics with children, also showing simple experiments. They also participate in festivals and other science outreach opportunities.
Local coordinator: Chiara Rovelli.
Website: https://web.infn.it/infn-kids/
INSPYRE (INternational School on modern PhYsics and Research) is an English-language physics school for upper secondary school students from all over the world. It lasts 5 days and takes place at the INFN National Laboratories of Frascati; the school programme covers a variety of different physics topics. The Rome Group is involved in the laboratory course on particle detectors, putting on display the operation of ArduSiPM type detectors and inviting students to perform measurements of environmental radioactivity and the flux of cosmic rays on the ground.
The local coordinator of the initiative is Dr. Valerio Bocci.
Website: http://edu.lnf.infn.it/inspyre-2020/
LAB2GO is a PCTO activity (an activity aimed at High School students to acquire skills outside of their ordinary skill-set taught in school) which supports the reorganization and improvement of science labs within High Schools, with the end purpose of promoting lab proficiency for STEM disciplines, and the sharing of best teaching practices, following the idea that "science is made with hands" (Prof. Riccardo Faccini, LAB2GO project creator). Each school participating in the project selects one of its teachers and a group of students. They are then paired with INFN researchers or technologists, university researchers or professors, supported by student fellows (master or PhD students), to explore the science laboratories within their schools, catalog their contents and revive the instruments contained therein, whenever possible, with the aim of completing and documenting various experimental activities which will, in turn, enrich the educational offering of each participating school.
The Rome local project coordinators are Dr. Francesco Safai Tehrani and Prof. Cecilia Voena.
The national coordinator is Dr.ssa Giulia De Bonis.
INTERNATIONAL MASTERCLASS IPPOG: CMS&ATLAS SCUOLA CC3M ▽
This masterclass consists in lessons and seminars targeting high school students of the Lazio region and held simultaneously at INFN Rome and other international institutions. The program is coordinated by IPPOG at CERN and INFN.
The main topic of these activities is high energy physics and particle physics. After each set of seminars, the students take part in a hands-on session during which they can access and analyze real LHC collision data collected by the CMS and ATLAS experiments at CERN. Master and PhD students from our research groups coordinate the hands-on activities.
At the end of the data analysis sessions, the students participate in a real international conference by connecting with CERN and other students who run the same activity around the world.
Every year we organize two international masterclasses. The first one is always organized to celebrate the international day of women and girls in science, around February 11th. For this special event we also organize a seminar/debate about the role of women in science, bringing the experience of our researches on the stage.
The national coordinator is Dr Livia Soffi.
The co-coordinators are Prof. Giovanni Organtini for CMS and Dr. Matteo Bauce for ATLAS.
Website: https://www.phys.uniroma1.it/fisica/PLS-Fisica_Moderna
INTERNATIONAL MASTERCLASS: Researchers for a day SCUOLA CC3M ▽
The program of this Masterclass consists of lectures and seminars held in different departments and laboratories of the INFN. The theme is particle physics. Each lesson is followed by an exercise which uses data gathered from an experiment. Several researchers from our section also collaborate in this activity. The lessons and exercises are carried out locally, but the project also includes a final link between different locations in order to exchange views and discuss the results achieved.
The local coordinator of the initiative is Dr. Valerio Bocci.
Website: http://physicsmasterclasses.org/
EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS' NIGHT EVENTI ▽
In the context of the organization of the european researchers' night (ERN) our INFN group contributes to the initiatives of the Consorzio "Scienza Insieme NET" [www.scienzainsieme.it] ] which includes, among others, several public research institutions like CNR, INAF, CINECA, ENEA, INGV, UniversitàTor Vergata, Università Sapienza.
The event happens every year in the last weekend of September and it is anticipated by an entire week of activities for the schools, hosted within the Sapienza University.
During the ERN we propose several outreach activities including hands-on laboratories and games.
Local coordinators: Alba Formicola, Marco Drago, Paolo Pani.
Website: https://www.scienzainsieme.it/notte-europea-dei-ricercatori/
The OCRA project is aimed at high school teachers and students. The International Cosmic Day (ICD) is organised every year to take part in the international day dedicated to cosmic rays, where several schools in the region can participate in sessions to measure the flux of cosmic rays according to the angle with the instruments available at the Rome INFN. A selected sample of students who have excelled during the ICD are given the opportunity to participate in a 3-day course. Specifically for local activities, the group has developed a platform to measure the particle flux in the upper atmosphere through the use of lightweight stratospheric balloons. The measurements were collected in 2018 with the EOS stratospheric balloon (in partnership with the “A. Russo” Institute in Nicotera), at an altitude of 27,000 meters, and in 2019 by means of the MoCRiS project (in partnership with Liceo Scientifico “Stefano Patrizi” of Cariati), up to an altitude of 34,111 metres.
In 2020 the group was asked to organise a 3-day national internship with the launch of a stratospheric balloon from the National Laboratories of Frascati. In addition, a measurement of muon fluxes in the water of Lake Bracciano had been planned in 2020 through the PARTICLE project (Pacini rAy expeRimenT In braCciano LakE); the aim of the project was to retrace the famous 1910 measurement by Domenico Pacini. Due to the Covid-19 emergency, outdoor activities have been postponed to a later date. In support of the DAD (remote learning) activities, the Rome group designed a data analysis course at the INFN OCRA site, focusing on the measurement of particle fluxes in the upper atmosphere, and making available data and methods used in the MoCRiS project.
The local coordinator of the initiative is Dr. Valerio Bocci.
Website: https://web.infn.it/OCRA/
INFN Rome and ITIS G. Galilei partnership in Rome. SCUOLA PCTO ▽
INFN Rome and ITIS G. Galilei Partnership in Rome: Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation (PCTO) and Professional Technical Pole (PTP).
The Rome Division of INFN will renew the three-year agreement in 2024 with one of the best high schools in the Lazio Region, the I.T.I.S "Galileo Galilei" in Rome, continuing the fruitful School-Work Alternation activity started in 2018. The agreement promotes the development of a highly specialized professional and technological education and training system to guarantee graduates entry into the world of work, and promotes equal opportunities in the dissemination of technical and scientific culture, research and technological transfer.
This collaboration involves the creation of courses for transversal skills and orientation (PCTO) focused on mechanics and electronics topics, through the joint teaching of INFN Rome and ITIS Galilei staff. The three-year project is based on a large public-private partnership made up of companies, universities and research bodies, within which ITIS is the Lead Partner and the Rome Section is a partner of the Professional Technical Center "Galileo Informatica e Meccanica" (PTP approved and sponsored by the Lazio Region with resolution N.G14090 of 11/17/2021, https://www.itisgalilei.edu.it/pagine/polo-tecnico-professionale-galileo).
PCTO activities are coordinated, in Rome Division, by Eng. Valerio Pettinacci, Operational Representative of the PTP. The teaching sessions in the coming years will be held by Eng. Valerio Pettinacci and Dr. Riccardo Vari, members of the Scientific Technical Committee of the PTP, with the possibility of adding further specific PCTOs within the topics of mechanics, electronics or information technology in case of interest in collaborating on the part of other colleagues from INFN Rome.
The main objective of the courses carried out so far has been to transfer skills and working methodologies applied in the field of mechanical design with the aid of modern three-dimensional CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software and the design of electronic systems that use integrated circuits programmable gates based on "Field Programmable Gate Array" (FPGA) and Arduino microprocessors. The courses are based on mechanical and electronic systems designed for experimental apparatus for nuclear, subnuclear and astroparticle physics research. It will naturally be possible to implement further specific courses, in the event of further proposals coming from the Section staff relating to the three thematic macro-areas mentioned above. PCTO teaching began in the 2020-2021 academic year and will continue with the extension of the aforementioned agreements, placing ever-increasing attention on the specificities and interconnections with the primary activities of both Institutes.
The partnership in the PTP allows the INFN to be part of a collaboration network between companies and universities capable of combining the training of young people and the development of advanced technologies.
Operational contact and member of the Scientific Technical Committee: Valerio Pettinacci.
Member of the Scientific Technical Committee: Riccardo Vari.
Pint of Science SCUOLA CC3M EVENTI ▽
Pint of Science was born in the UK from the idea of talking about science in front of a pint of beer. It is aimed at a general audience and consists in seminars at pubs or similar venues in many cities worldwide, for the same three days nationally and globally. As our coordinator says -- Why Pint of Science? Because science is fun!.
The local coordinator of Pint of Science in Rome is Marco Bochicchio.
Website: https://pintofscience.it/