Public Resources
We encourage educators and students to be involved with the DarkSide experiments and to learn as much about them as possible. We offer educational videos in both Italian and English as well as MasterClass materials.
Educational Videos
You are viewing the English extended version of our promotional video. Additional versions available:
English reduced (no interviews)
Mini video (experimental area)
Audience: General public
Format: Video
Language: Italian/English version
Accessibility: Captions available
Publication Year: 2020
DarkSide MasterClasses
Audience: +13, high-school students
Format: Presentations + Spreadsheet
Language: English
Accessibility: N/A
Publication Year: 2020
The DarkSide masterclasses are a set of lectures and exercises addressed to High School students about dark matter search (Level 1, Level 2) and the underground argon projects (ARIA). The duration of the lectures is approximately 30 minutes each (including questions).
The lecture slides include comments as a guide for the speaker and several videos. Watching the DS-20k video (in the section above) is recommended for the masterclass, either in between the two lectures or sent to the participants before the masterclass.
Level 1 and Level 2 correspond to two different levels of complexity; Level 2 has more information on S1 and S2 signals and the dark matter search exclusion plot. The exercises can be performed using Excel or Google Sheet. In the Level 1 exercises event selection criteria can be applied using pre-defined filters and formulae. In the Level 2 exercises the students have to write formulae by themselves.
Level One:
Level 1 Materials can be found HERE.
Lecture_Masterclass_Part1.pptx is a set of slides about Dark Matter and WIMPs.
Lecture _Masterclass_Part2.pptx is a set of slides about how to detect WIMPs and a description of the experiment.
Level Two:
Level 2 Materials can be found HERE.
Level 2 has additional files for carrying out the exercises in “root”:
TTreeMaker.c to create a root Tree including the variables needed;
data_master.txt is the set of data to be read using the root macro (or by uploading the txt file in a Excel/Google sheet file);
Student_report_guide.pptx is the corresponding template file for Level 2.
Please note that Level 2 also makes use of DarkSide-50 veto selection criteria from both the liquid scintillator and water volumes (while in Level 1 only one simplified VETO selection criterion is employed). A simplified pulse shape discrimination selection is also added.
Additional Programming
Public Education Opportunities:
Our collaboration partners, INFN LNGS and GSSI offer public education opportunities.
LNGS hosts regular public engagement programs, including Open Days and the European Researchers' Night (SHARPER), designed to share astrophysics with the community. They also offer frequent training schools, scientific seminars, and public discussions. Information on these programs can be found here.
The Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) provides a rich variety of public education, outreach, and science communication events designed for the general public, schools, and local communities, found here.
Public Talks:
Below you will see three videos with educational content.
1. DarkSide-20k: Searching for Dark Matter with DarkSide-20k (short film about the detector technology, for the public, 2020, in English)
2. Understanding our Universe from Deep Underground (public lecture by Prof. Art McDonald, 2023, in English)
3. Dark Matter and Dark Sector: Open Symposium on the European Strategy for Particle Physics (review talks for a scientific audience, 2025, in English)
Educational Materials License
Unless otherwise indicated, the educational materials available on the DarkSide website are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Under this license, you are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use.
These freedoms cannot be revoked provided you comply with the license terms.
When using these materials, you must:
- Give appropriate credit to the DarkSide Collaboration and any identified authors or contributors.
- Provide a link to the CC BY 4.0 license.
- Indicate if changes were made.
- Not imply that the DarkSide Collaboration endorses you or your use of the material.
The full license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The DarkSide Collaboration aims to unveil the nature of dark matter through liquid argon detector technology and innovative underground experiments. It is located at the Laboratori Nazional del Gran Sasso in L’Aquila, Italy.
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