Briey, France, August 9-14, 1999.
The 3rd Summer School was organised by the Working Group on Training Teachers (WG3) from 9th to 14th of August 1999 in Briey with the cooperation of CLEA. As a consequence of the solar eclipse on August 11th the summer school was organised focussing on this topic.
During the course 2 general lectures, 5 working groups, 4 workshops, 2 general working groups, poster sessions and observations were held. The topics included were:
General Lectures
1. Solar eclipses.
2. The remarkable role of eclipses in famous steps of scientific progress.
Working Groups
1. Aristarcho's Proportions (Rosa M. Ros, Eder Viñuales).
2. Calculations of longtitude.
3. Determination of Lunar distance by means of a Solar eclipse.
4. Hipparcus and the precession of the equinoxes.
5. Why are the eclipses dancing through the calendar?
Workshops
1. A 'Scale Model' to Study Solar Eclipse (Leonarda Fucili, Simon Garcia Garcia, Giuliano Casali).
2. CCD - IS it worth the effort?
3. Evaluating the luminosity, temperature and percentage of the area covered of a Solar eclipse.
4. Sunlight Spectra (Alexandre da Costa).
General Working Groups
1. Astronomy teaching in Europe.
2. Eclipse results.
There were 50 of us present including participants and 12 instructors from 14 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden). There were also a participant from Chile, meaning that the Summer School is starting to be well-known. The atmosphere surrounding our activities during the week was very friendly. An important exchange of ideas and experiences between people from different countries, ages and walks of life took place.
One of the comments received in our questionaire summarised the general feeling of all of us: "A very enriching week from several points of view: astronomy, teaching, languages and friendship".
Photos
Rosa M. Ros, Frédéric Dahringer.