Light allows us to know our environment and also gives us information about regions that are out of our reach, as happens with most objects in the Universe. Light has also allowed great achievements for science, with very important implications for Astrophysics, such as Eddington's experiment, of which we have just celebrated its centenary and which meant the observational verification of Einstein's theory of General Relativity, or the discovery that the spectrum of a chemical element is like a bar code that characterizes it in a unique way. In 2019, the first image of the "shadow" of a black hole was also obtained. To celebrate these scientific milestones, the contents of the fifth edition of the International Summer Course "Astronomy Adventure in the Canary Islands", organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), will revolve around the theme "The message of light".
The training is intended for pre-university teachers and will take place from 15 to 19 July 2019 in La Laguna (Tenerife), with two headquarters: the IAC and the Aulario de Guajara of the University of La Laguna. It consists of five days of conferences and workshops on Astronomy and Astrophysics, with a marked practical and interactive character, emphasizing the use of robotic telescopes in classrooms, other resources and online laboratories, inquiry-based learning and the multidisciplinary approach. The programme also includes a formative visit to the Teide Observatory (Tenerife), and an optional visit to the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma) on Saturday 20 July.
The course is part of the IAC's Educational Project with Robotic Telescopes (PETeR) and is carried out in collaboration with the Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia (NUCLIO; Portugal), the Faulkes Telescope Project (Cardiff University; Wales), the National Schools’ Observatory (LJMU; United Kingdom) and the educational initiative CESAR (ESA, ISDEFE; Spain), all of them institutions and projects aimed at promoting scientific-technological vocations among schoolchildren and young people through Astronomy-Astrophysics and related areas.
"The objective of this course is to provide teachers with knowledge and useful tools so that they can develop a more practical and stimulating scientific-technical education for their students, using Astronomy and the powerful resources to which the European and, in particular, the Spanish educational community has access", explains Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio, coordinator of PETeR (IAC) and director of the course together with Rosa Doran (NUCLIO). "The evaluation of the teachers who have been trained with us in the four previous editions is very positive and many of them have put into practice the knowledge acquired, developing research projects with their students. This encourages us each year to organize a new edition of the Astronomy Adventure in the Canary Islands".
The training will be given in English, as it is open to both the Spanish educational community and teachers from other European countries (through the Erasmus+ programme). Its international character offers participants an excellent opportunity to establish links and collaborations with educational centres in different countries. It will last 30 hours and will be certified by the IAC and NUCLIO, within the framework of the Galileo Teacher Training Program. The course is also certified by the Department of Education and Universities of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Ministry of Education of the Government of Spain.
For Spanish teachers there is no registration fee, but it will be necessary to sign up, as the number of available places is limited. Registration is open until June 25th (or until full capacity is reached) and places will be assigned in order of registration, with priority to teachers who are on duty in public centers.
To register, it is necessary to fill in the attached registration form and send it by email to Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio (peter [at] iac.es (peter[at]iac[dot]es)) along with a copy of the ID.
More information:
Previous editions:
- AACI 2018
- AACI 2017
- AACI 2016
- AACI 2015
Contact:
Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio: peter [at] iac.es (peter[at]iac[dot]es)
