Satellite of
IAU (international Astronomical Union)- IMU (International Mathematical Union) Symposium

"Mathematics and Astronomy, a Joint Long Journey"

Organisation

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) organised each year a Summer School since 1997. This institution organised 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 was open to all secondary school teachers who work in European countries.

CSIC Spanish National Research Council (Instituto de Química-Física Rocasolano

Main features of the Course

The course took place on November 26^th - December 1^st and was held in the CSIC Headquarters in Madrid. At this event several different kinds of activities were presented by astronomers, university professors and secondary school teachers, members of EAAE-WGSS. The theme of this course was "Adventure in teaching Astronomy". The aim of the organisers is to promote very active participation and the exchange of ideas.

General Lectures (GL) were presented by IAU astronomers.

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

Workshops (WS) were held in small groups (20 participants)with the objective to offer teachers very practical and didactic presentations.

Observation sessions (OS) were held during the course depending on the weather, to introduce the participants to astronomical observations. The course offered participants a special observation in Cosmocaixa-Madrid Science Museum

Poster session (PS) was organised, to which participants were invited to contribute by presenting posters of particular astronomical activities.

Evaluation Session (ES) of different activities took place at the end of the course, giving there a chance to make comments on the course contents in a general discussion.

Publications and materials

The organisers of the course published the material necessary to carry out the activities on the programme. On the first day of the course, each participant received a booklet with:

• a) the abstract of each general lecture,
• b) an explanation of each workshop with the materials necessary to do it: sketches, tables, graphics, drawings, etc. and information about how to carry out the activity involved,
• c) materials needed for observation sessions,
• d) a summary of posters and
• e) addresses of participants and instructors.

Registration:

The course was a Comenius course. The title of the course was "ADVENTURE IN TEACHING ASTRONOMY" and the code "ES-2009-217-001".

December 10^th, 2009, Rosa M. Ros, Chairperson of the ESO-EAAE-SS