ESA’s AutumnTeacher workshop
Fifty European teachers took part in 5 days of challenging classroom work at ESA’s Summer Teacher workshop last week that was organized by European Space Agency (ESA). One of them was Marek Raja from our school. This workshop took place in Leiden, the Netherlands, from 4 to 8 October 2017.
The workshop was meant to provide teachers with tools and practical ideas on how to run their classroom lessons using space as an inspiring context. The activities were proposed along three different space themes:
Rockets and Launchers
Experimenting with rockets and working with the Spacecraft Materials Kit gave teachers good knowledge and practice on what is needed to get a rocket into space as well as the properties of the materials that are required for this purpose.
Earth Observation
What is it like to look down on Earth from a satellite’s perspective using the broad range of wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum? What can we learn from these satellite images that can help us ‘feel the pulse of our planet’ so that we can understand and preserve it? Teachers learned how to run simple experiments and interpret satellite data for use in their lessons.
Space Exploration
Humans, with the help of robots, are continuing their pioneering journey to prepare for setting humankind’s feet on other planets of the Solar System. How can we do this and what can we discover? From programming an Astro-Pi computer to discovering exoplanets, teachers learned first-hand how to get their students involved in maths and physics.
