ESA Summer Workshops for Teachers

Let's face it! Kids love space! Using space exploration and astronomy can be a brilliant way of engaging students with science and planting the seed of inquiry in young minds. While the Irish science curricula (criminally) contains little mention of space, there is no reason why individual science teachers can't use it as a means of capturing their students' imagination. If you would like to learn more about how space could be used in this way, to engage young people with science, then the European Space Agency's (ESA) Summer Workshops are perfect for you!

Applications are now open for ESA's summer 2012 workshops, being held at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, the Netherlands! 

During this workshop, participants will be presented with innovative and inspiring methods using space as a means for engaging students with the sciences. In addition to networking with their peers from across Europe, participants will have the opportunity to gain new skills that will enhance their teaching methods and refresh existing lessons.

The workshop is open to teachers of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in secondary schools (students 12-18 years old) of ESA Member and Cooperating States (which includes Ireland) and participating teachers are subject to a number of conditions (namely their willingness to share their newly acquired skills with teachers in their own country). During the workshop, participants will be introduced to ESA’s wide range of educational resources, such as classroom materials, teaching tools and scientific data to motivated teachers. I attended a similar workshop in Amsterdam a number of years ago and couldn't recommend the experience highly enough!

Application Forms are available here and should be submitted by 4th June 2012.