The ``TenDaysPhysics4Teenagers'' Experience in Pavia

For almost a decade, the Physics Department of the University of Pavia, in northern Italy, has been offering a summer school ``TenDaysPhysics4Teenagers'' to around thirty high-school students from various cities. The attendees are presented with a theoretical and experimental introduction to modern physics (nuclei and particles, condensed matter, medical physics, astrophysics). The program involves lectures, lab sessions, guided tours to the Pavia nuclear reactor and to the University Museum, and a weekend of observational astronomy. Being in close contact with professors, researchers, and students of the Department, the attendees can sate their curiosity and whet their critical attitude in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Due to the CoViD-19 pandemic, the 2020 summer school was readapted to avoid lab sessions; live experiments during the seminars were introduced, and the number of in-presence attendees was cut. However, thanks to the lectures live streaming, we reached about fifty participants overall. This school has proved to be an effective way to promote physics to high school students, as shown by the number of former attendees (15/35 for 2019 edition) now enrolled in our Department.