LAPP internship for local secondary school pupils
From November 25 to 28, the LAPP welcomed nine fourteen year old pupils for their internship in a company. This was an opportunity for these young people to develop a first view of the world of work and how it works. This internship was also intended to discover a particular profession or work position to enable them, if possible, to specify their scholarly orientation. To meet these objectives, the laboratory has offered a wide range of activities to these young people.
As a welcome, the first morning was reserved for immersion in the world of particles: recalling the different scales characterizing matter, from the infinitely large to the infinitely small with the “measurements and lengths” workshop, short science course in amphitheatre before presenting the different research themes of the laboratory by visiting the EUTOPIA space.
Each technical department then received the pupils for half-days of work on mini-projects: welding workshop to manufacture an electronic board, taking measurements or working on a drawing before designing a mechanical part on a computer, visit of the MUST computer center and introduction to computer programming, design of a logo or explanation of a fun physics experience to illustrate communication 
, question and answer game about life in the company to discover administration.
These workshops were a very playful and concrete way of approaching the know-how of each department, in order to understand “in fine” how they support the laboratory’s research work
Rendez-vous with “big science” and its excessiveness on Wednesday 27th: the day dedicated to visiting CERN and discovering the LHC. The young people discovered the synchrocyclotron, the first accelerator commissioned in 1957, visited the SM18 hall dedicated to magnet tests and the “data centre”. As Thibault points out: “CERN was great” or Romain C. “It was my favourite activity“, the trip was a great success.
Finally, there were still a few questions left. “A researcher, during his day, what does he do?” And then how much does he earn?” “How do we become a researcher ?” The discovery of the research profession was often the primary reason for young people coming to LAPP. To best satisfy their curiosity, a researcher and a teacher-researcher agreed to talk freely and spontaneously about their journey during an improvised picnic.
These four days were intense and varied. The secondary school pupils left the school looking happy, feeling that they had been enriched by new ideas.