Education programmes

Our objective: to give people a taste for science

Our approaches and tools enable teachers to introduce up-to-date physics into their teaching and to involve their students in real experiments, as though they were young scientists. The 'School of the two infinites' forms a bridge between the teaching and research worlds. It aims to:

• Introduce pupils to careers available in research
• Awaken their curiosity to the physics of the infinitely small and to physics of the universe
• Share basic research discoveries and applications
• Present physics in a concrete way and the men and women who make it progress
• Foster scientific vocations among young people

We offer teaching materials, lectures in schools, meetings, experiments, exhibitions, laboratory visits. All these educational initiatives are based on partnerships - in particular with the Higher Education Research and Innovation Ministry 'Science à l’École' programme or with CERN – and they benefit from the support of many of the Institute's staff members. They are coordinated by IN2P3’s Communication and Outreach team, in close collaboration with the communication staff of its laboratories. Our flagship education projects are:

Particle physics masterclasses

In partnership with CERN, IN2P3 laboratories invite more than 1,000 students every year to a day-long discovery of particle physics session. The students take measurements on real LHC data and at the end of the day they attend a videoconference in English to exchange their results with other participants from abroad.

Information brochure

Internship at CERN

Every year, in partnership with 'Sciences à l'École’, IN2P3 organises an internship at CERN for high-school teachers. The five-day course takes place during the first week of the autumn half-term holiday is offered for around 20 teachers. The call for applications takes place in the spring and the selection is in May to June for internships the following autumn. For more information, click here.

e-PÉRON, educational platform on cosmic rays and muons

e-PÉRON is an educational project entirely devoted to training in secondary (high school) and higher education (DUT, undergraduate, master). It provides an experimental platform of cosmic rays physics installed at the Pic du Midi Observatory (Hautes-Pyrénées region) whose measurements can be consulted and used at a distance. To find out more about it, click here.

'Two-infinite' conferences

The conference programme of the École des deux infinis (the school of the two infinities) is primarily aimed at the scientists of the future, i.e. high school and undergraduate students. A second audience in our efforts to popularise science is the general public, with actions toward associations or during conferences, open days in our laboratories, exhibitions.

IN2P3's scientific themes are extremely varied. In terms of fundamental research, the two main axes are 'the infinitely small' and 'the infinitely large'. These are based on cutting-edge technological know-how in many fields and have led to the development of applied research activities. It is this knowledge - as well as the progress, challenges and discoveries that accompany it - that IN2P3 wishes to convey to society through the lecture programme of the École des deux infinis. Our speakers strive to respond as best they can to requests and adapt their pedagogy to the audience expected for their speech.

Proposed themes:

• Ultimate components of matter and fundamental interactions
• From nucleons to nuclei
• Astroparticles and Cosmology: composition and evolution of the universe
• R&D activities around particle accelerators
• Instrumentation
• Computational grids - Computer processing of large amounts of data
• Applications: nuclear and medical energy