The Extreme-Energy Events Project: a bridge between school and professional research

The Extreme-Energy Events (EEE) Experiment is a cosmic ray observatory based on a network of detecting stations distributed over the Italian territory and at CERN. A station of the network, called “telescope”, consists of three superimposed Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs), each one covering a surface of about 1.5 $m^2$, used with the same technology as the time-of-flight detector of the ALICE experiment at CERN-LHC. Data are collected and sent in real time to the INFN-CNAF computer center for reconstruction and analysis. The large area covered by the network, ranging from Southern Italy up to the CERN laboratories, was achieved with the decision to install the detectors inside high schools, involving students and teachers in a modern experiment within a unique program. This very coexistence of scientific activity and outreach represents the uniqueness of the EEE Project. % The outreach programme is articulated in several initiatives, each encoding the different aspects of the research activity normally expected in a high-energy physics experiment. Students are involved in detector construction at CERN, installation in school, and in the commissioning of the station when data taking starts. Once the detector reaches a steady working regime, students are requested to monitor on a daily basis the performance of the telescope and report any failure. In parallel to the hardware-related operations, students learn how to perform the analysis of EEE data under the supervision of their teachers and of the EEE researchers, supporting the scientific output of the experiment. Every month students report progress and issues in a dedicated online meeting open to all schools and to the EEE researchers. Beside this monthly appointment, in the pre-COVID era an in-person meeting was taking place twice per year, hosted by the \textit{Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture} in Erice or by a school or institution involved in the project. During a three-day, students attend masterclasses and take part in measurement campaigns, disseminating their results by submitting contributions to important outreach-oriented journals (such as the Italian \textit{Giornale di Fisica}).