The SCREAM (Scintillator Cosmic Ray Experiments into Atmospheric Muons) project concerns the unstable fundamental particles similar to electrons which are created by high energy particles from space bombarding the top-of-the-atmosphere. A scintillator - photomultiplier tube detector, similar to those found in cutting edge neutrino experiments, can be used to detect these particles and measure their properties. This project can result in research into a variety of topics such as the origin of cosmic rays, their interaction with matter, special relativity, and the Higgs boson.
Please note that we can only offer this project to a limited number of schools and is only open to schools who have successfully undertaken a project with us previously.
SCREAM Student Guide [PDF 454KB]Muon Lifetime (Maximum Likelihood Estimation) Python Script [3KB]Muon Lifetime (Least Squares) Spreadsheet [XLS 153KB]
The teacher guide can be found in the teacher area — please contact us if you're unable to access.
Here are some of examples of high-quality work previously presented by students at our Research in Schools conference.
Posters: Poster 1 [PDF 1,106KB] Poster 2 [PDF 691KB] Poster 3 [PDF 549KB]Talk: Talk 1 [PDF 1,316KB] Talk 2 [PDF 857KB]
The SCREAM is current led by Dr Linda Cremonesi who is a UK Future Leaders Fellow and Lecturer in Particle Physics. It was previously led by Dr Jeanne Wilson, who worked on the SNO+, T2K and proposed HyperK neutrino experiments.