30
Nov 09

EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 5

category: EAAE-IAU Courses on Astronomy Education Comments Off on EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 5
The course started in the morning with a workshop called "Planetary systems: from Galileo to exoplanets" presented by Rosa Maria Ros, of Technical University of Catalonia, Spain.

Participants working during the workshop of planetary systems.
This workshop was followed by two short presentations, the first by Josée Sert about an "Astronomic fresco of the 13th century" and another by Rosa Maria Ros about a "Pilot course on teacher education in South America".

An image of the analysis of the Saint-Sernin astronomical fresco of the 13th century
The morning ended with a workshop about "The Sun: from Galileo's work until today" presented by Janet Hilton, of The Kingsley School, United Kingdom.

A group picture of some of the participants after lunch.

After lunch, the course proceeded with a workshop by Veselka Radeva, of Astronomical Observatory and Planetarium of Varna, Bulgaria, called "From the Galilean Solar System to the detection of new minor bodies determining the distance the distance of 1994 TG2.

The course'e day ended with a workshop by Alan Pickwick, of Manchester Grammar School, United Kingdom, called "There's more in Astronomy than meets the eye".

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29
Nov 09

EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 4

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On the 4th day the participants of the EAAE-IAU Course set on to CosmoCaixa by bus.

At CosmoCaixa the participant were received by Alejandro Fernández, the Director of the institution, who presented the institution through a general lecture called "CosmoCaixa. Ten years of disclosure of science", followed by a guided tour around the perimeter.


Some participants at the Toca!Toca! exhibition at CosmoCaixa.
Josée Sert and Cristina Palici presented a General Working Group about the "International Year of Astronomy 2009: Results and perspectives".

Josée Sert and Cristina Palici during their presentation.

In the afternoon Veselka Redeva, Alexandre Costa and Alan Pickwick made a presentation about nighttime observations, concerning observation activities with the Moon and Deep Space objects, as well as explanations about telescope functioning.

Activity about the observation of the Moon's features

After a free visit to the Science Museum and a Planetarium Session, the group then followed to the Center of Madrid for a free tour.
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28
Nov 09

EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 3

category: EAAE-IAU Courses on Astronomy Education Comments Off on EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 3
The course's work started with a general lecture by Jay Pasachoff, from Williams College, USA, about the "Transits of Mercury and Venus and their implications for exoplanet transits and the Kepler Mission".

Jay Pasachoff during his presentation

The morning then proceeded with a general lecture of John Percy of Toronto University, Canada, in which he talked about "Celebrating Galileo and the International Year of Astronomy2009 in your classroom".

John Percy during his general lecture.
The end of the morning was spent with a poster session were the authors of the posters presented their work and answered to questions of the audience.

In the afternoon Alexandre Costa of Escola Secundária de Loulé, Portugal, presented a workshop about stellar emission and spectra called "Why don't green stars exist?".


Mixing light colours in the workshop about the colours of stars.

After the afternoon's break a workshop about the preparation of nighttime astronomical observations was presented by Janet Hilton, Rosa Maria Ros, Eder Viñuales and Charles-Henri Eyraud.

Eder Viñuales explaining how to prepare nightime observations.
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27
Nov 09

EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 2

category: EAAE-IAU Courses on Astronomy Education Comments Off on EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 2

The EAAE-IAU Course on Astronomy Education began with a workshop about "Galileo and the phases of Venus" presented by Charles-Henri Eyraud, from the Institute National de Recherche Pédagogique, of France, were the observations made by Galileo in 1610-1611 and his conclusions were thoroughly analyzed.


Charles-Henri Eyraud during his workshop

The morning work continued with two short presentations, one presented by Cristina Palici di Suni, from SIS Specialization Interuniversity School of Torino, Italy, called "A Teacher in a classroom needs a strategy" and the other presented by Carla Isabel Ribeiro, from Portugal, called "Seasons".

At the end of the morning Cristina Palici and Eder Viñuales presented a workshop called "Measures of long distances".


Workshop of Cristina Palici and Eder Viñuales

In the afternoon, the course continued with a General Lecture called "Astronomy Heritage, an important tool for education" presented by Magda Stavinschi, of the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy, where the topic of scientific literacy and the importance of astronomy to this issue was debated.

Irma Hannula, from Finland made a short presentation about the construction of a pocket sized telescope called "Telescope in the pocket" which was followed by another short presentation called "Sunrise at different latitudes" performed by Rosa Maria Ros, from Technical University of Catalonia, Spain, as part of her cooperation work with the Finnish teacher Sakari Ekko.

Julieta Fierro, of the Instituto de Astronomía de la UNAM, México, then presented a general lecture on south american archaeoastronomy called "Astronomy in the Aztec and Maya Land".


The lecture of Julieta Fierro(in the center at background)

Eva Dominique, Spain, talked about the "ApEA activities in Spain" and the day closed with Veselka Radeva's short presentation about "International Summer Schools Rozhen" and their role in Astronomy Education for students and teachers.


Veselka Radeva during her short presentation
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26
Nov 09

EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 1

category: EAAE-IAU Courses on Astronomy Education Comments Off on EAAE-IAU Course 2009. Day 1
The EAAE-IAU Course on Astronomy Education, that was intitled "Adventures in Teaching Astronomy" is a pilot course organised as a joint venture between EAAE and IAU. The course has started today and will end next Monday, December 1st 2009.
The opening session was followed by a general lecture presented by George Miley, Vice-President of the IAU that explained the future plans of IAU for the decade 2010-2020, based on the achievements of IYA 2009.

George Miley during his presentation

After the general lecture participants made their introduction to each other. The presentations were followed by the assembly of the poster session where the participants could present their work on astronomy teaching that has been developed in schools.


A group picture with some of the first day's participants
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26
Nov 09

EAAE-IAU Course on Astronomy Education starts today

category: EAAE-IAU Courses on Astronomy Education Comments Off on EAAE-IAU Course on Astronomy Education starts today

The European Association for Astronomy Education is the first all-European network for teachers interested in Astronomy. The EAAE-Working Group Summer School (EAAE-WGSS) has organized each year a Summer School since 1997. This institution is organizing this year a specific course for teachers in order to offer them access to new educational materials and methods and the chance to exchange experiences. This course is a Comenius course (Comenius course ES-2009-217-001) open to all secondary school teachers who work in European countries.
This year's course will take place on November 26th - December 1st and will be held in the CSIC Headquarters in Madrid. At this event several different kinds of activities will be presented by astronomers and university professors and secondary school teachers members of EAAE-WGSS. The course is for school teachers interested in astronomy even if they only have limited knowledge in this field. The course is not aimed at experts. The preliminary theme of this course is "Adventure in teaching Astronomy". The aim of the organizers is to promote very active participation and the exchange of ideas.

General Lectures (GL) will be presented by IAU astronomers.

General Working groups(GWG) will focus on general discussions related to teaching astronomy in Europe.

Workshops (WS) will be held in small groups (20 participants). The objective of WS is to offer teachers very practical and didactic presentations.

Observation sessions (OS) can be held during the course depending on the weather. The goal is to introduce the participants to astronomical observations. The course will offer participants a special observation in Cosmocaixa Madrid Science Museum.

Poster session (PS) will be organised, to which participants are invited to contribute by presenting posters of particular astronomical activities. The posters will be presented during the course in English.

Evaluation Session (ES) of different activities will take place at the end of the course. There will be a chance to make comments on the course contents in a general discussion.

The list of participants of the EAAE-IAU Course on Astronomy Education is:

1. Asare, Lasma
Kegums Commercial Secondary School, Kegums (Latvia)
E-mail: lasogre@yahoo.com

2. Bartolo, Ann-Marie
St. Nicholas College Girls Secondary School, Rabat (Malta)
E-mail: annmbart@maltanet.net

3. Ben Maaouia, Naoufel
Tunis Sciences City (Tunisia)
E-mail: naoufel.benmaaouia@cst.rnu.tn

4. Bettencourt, Nuno
EBI Padre Vítor Melícias, Torres Vedras (Portugal)
E-mail: nmbettencourt@gmail.com

5. Carreras, Carmen
Dpto. Física de los Materiales, UNED, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: ccarreras@ccia.uned.es

6. Costa, Alexandre
Escola Secundária de Loulé (Portugal)
E-mail: alexandrejcosta@gmail.com

7. Dluzewska, Barbara
Secondary School, Warsaw (Poland)
E-mail: barbara.dluzewska@aster.pl

8. Dominique, Eva
IES “Virgen de la Paz”, Alcobendas, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: eva.dominique@gmail.com

9. Eyraud, Charles-Henri
Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, Lyon (France)
E-mail: charles-henri.eyraud@inrp.fr

10. Fierro, Julieta
Instituto de Astronomía de la UNAM (México)
E-mail: fierroju@servidor.unam.mx

11. Guglielmino, Michela
LCSF, Facolta` di Scienze FF, MM, NN, Trento (Italy)
E-mail: guglielmino@science.unitn.it

12. Hannula, Irma
Aurinkolahti Comprehensive School, Helsinki (Finland)
E-mail: ihannula@mappi.helsinki.fi

13. Hilton, Janet
The Kingsley School, Leamington Spa (United Kingdom)
E-mail: hilton_janet56@btinternet.com

14. Larsson, Gunvor
Enskilda Gymnasiet, Stockholm (Sweden)
E-mail: gula@enskildagymnasiet.se

15. Madsen, Claus
European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, ESO (Germany)
E-mail: cmadsen@eso.org

16. Miley, George
Leiden Observatory (Netherlands) and Vice-President IAU
E-mail: miley@strw.leidenuniv.nl

17. Montoya, Mª del Mar
Dpto. Física de los Materiales, UNED, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: mmontoya@ccia.uned.es

18. Moreno, Ricardo
Secondary School, Pozuelo, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: rmluquero@gmail.com

19. Palici di Suni, Cristina
SIS Specialization Interuniversity School, Torino (Italy)
E-mail: palici@quadricom.org

20. Pasachoff, Jay M.
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts (USA)
E-mail: Jay.M.Pasachoff@williams.edu

21. Peña, Ángeles
IES “Vallecas-Magerit”, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: angeles.pena@educa.madrid.org

22. Peña, Margarita
IES “Antonio de Nebrija”, Móstoles, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: marga.ppablo@gmail.com

23. Percy, John R.
Toronto University (Canada)
E-mail: john.percy@utoronto.ca

24. Pérez-Acosta, Nieves
IES “Virgen de las Nieves”, La Palma (Spain)
E-mail: nperaco@terra.es

25. Petö, Mária
Reformed High School Saint George, Sf. Gheorghe (Romania)
E-mail: rkollegium@yahoo.com

26. Pickwick, Alan
Manchester Grammar School, Manchester (United Kingdom)
E-mail: Alan_C_Pickwick@btinternet.com

27. Radeva, Veselka
Astronomical Observatory and Planetarium, Varna (Bulgaria)
E-mail:
veselka.radeva@gmail.com

28. Ribeiro, Carla Isabel
Escola Secundário Joaquim de Araújo, Penafiel (Portugal)
E-mail: ribeirocarlaisabel@gmail.com

29. Ros, Rosa M.
Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona (Spain)
E-mail: ros@ma4.upc.edu

30. Sánchez-Fernández, Juan Pedro
Dpto. Física de los Materiales, UNED, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: jpsanchez@ccia.uned.es

31. Sert, Josée
Collège des Chalets, Toulouse (France)
E-mail: jsert@ac-toulouse.fr

32. Stavinschi, Magda
Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy (Romania)
E-mail: magda_stavinschi@yahoo.fr

33. Szatmari, Aurora-Dorina
Secondary School “Dimitrie Cantemir”, Oradea (Romania)
E-mail: dorina_szatmari@yahoo.com

34. Viñuales, Ederlinda
Zaragoza (Spain)
E-mail: ederlinda.vinuales@gmail.com

35. Yuste, Manuel
Dpto. Física de los Materiales, UNED, Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: myuste@ccia.uned.es

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26
Nov 09

A new educational star is born!

category: EAAE News Comments Off on A new educational star is born!

The EEAE News blog is the most recent development in the EAAE's educational activity.

This blog is intended to update news to allow astronomy teachers to know whats being discovered in Astronomy and whats going on in Astronomy Teaching in Europe.

The blog will be updated by a team of EAAE associates and any teacher who wishes to announce an event at his country (or school) is welcomed to send the news as he wants it to be presented. The text should be sent in Word (.doc) or text (.txt) format and images in JPEG or GIF format.

If you are an astronomy teacher and want to be part of our news team, all you need to do is to contact your national representative and request him to send us your email contact to confirm you are in fact a teacher.

We hope this will be a nice tool for teachers and that you enjoy it as much as we do.

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