Hellenic Lyceum Cosmic Observatories Network: Status Report and Outreach Activities

Abstract

The HELYCON project aims at the installation of cosmic air-shower detectors on the roofs of high-school buildings in western Greece. During the last four years, the HELYCON project made a substantial progress. Three HELYCON stations were installed and are still in operation at the Hellenic Open University (HOU) campus, while a small-scale air-shower detector ( μ Cosmics detector), suitable for in classroom operation, was developed. During the construction and operation of these detectors, many experimental tests and calibration procedures were established, offering the framework for the educational activities of the HELYCON project. In this work, we present the recent developments of the HELYCON project and describe the main aspects of the methodology we use in a five-day training program that introduces the Greek education community to the experimental procedures of HELYCON.