The Washington Large Area Time Coincidence Array

The number and density of schools in the Seattle area is convenient for the study of distributed particle showers produced at the top of the atmosphere by ultra-high energy (about ${10}^{20}$ eV) cosmic rays. We are forming a collaboration for the development of a distributed detector network to study air showers from such ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We call the cosmic ray measurement component WALTA (WAshington Large-area Time-coincidence Array). WALTA aims to provide teachers and students the opportunity to become active participants in forefront scientific projects. A cornerstone of the program will be to install a measurement module at each participating school.