Discoveries in cosmology challenge our fundamental assumptions about the universe. They alter our perception of matter, time and distance; they transform how we view our history and future as a species.The basic idea is to expose high school students to one of the big open questions in cosmology today: the dark matter.The answer to this question is related to ongoing research in CERN like the searching for the axions or WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles). The suggested program will help students to get insight into the methods of basic research in cosmology and particle physics. The students will have the opportunity to work on real data from measurements related to the dark matter or to the search for dark matter candidates.They will get a filling how the secrets of the universe are related to the secrets of matter. Our assumption is that students at the ages 15-19 will be fascinating to enlarge their knowledge about the universe.
"In a spiral galaxy, the ratio of dark-to-light matter is about a factor of ten. That's probably a good number for the ratio of our ignorance-to-knowledge. We're out of kindergarten, but only in about third grade."
