A peculiar didactical experience with the Pierre Auger Observatory outreach data

In this paper it will be described a peculiar educational experience with a classroom of Italian 17/18 years-old students during the competition “At school of Astroparticles” organized by Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN). It will also be shown how the action-research in scientific methodology formed an alternative, effective, and motivating approach to study physics. The students had significant advantages thanks to the information and the scientific data recorded by the Pierre Auger Observatory and transmitted to a computer in an accessible area to process via web. The teachers, researchers, and technicians of INFN were very helpful for the students to reconstruct extensive air showers (EAS) with computer software: the primary cosmic ray directions, the core of the EAS, the arrival times of secondary particle have been reconstructed with data available for outreach activities of the Pierre Auger Observatory, located in the Pampa Argentina on 3000 km2 of area and composed of a surface array of 1660 water Cherenkov tanks, and 27 fluorescence telescopes. This experience showed them an alternative captivating educational approach, having experienced the excitement of research, and having produced a scientific article, web page and a videogame. The success of the educational activity is reflected both in auto-cognitive books written by the students themselves and in skills achieved in checks during the experience.