Organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and portuguese Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomía (NUCLIO) as well as several other astronomical projects like the Faulkes Telescope Project, NSO and CESAR, the sixth edition of the summer course “Astronomy Adventure in the Canary Islands” which was held on July 20-24 online, was a total success.

170 teachers from 40 countries along 4 different continents assisted to the most international teachers training course we have ever participated.

 

                                                                

                                                                                                             Chart giving the number of participants by nationality  Credit: NUCLIO

 

“We worked a lot before the start to ensure all the aspects [of the course] were covered” says NUCLIO’s head, Rosa Doran. “Our expectations were more than achieved” As it was the first full online edition, promoters had to confront several issues concerning organization, but the outcome exceeded expectations. “We were not sure if the message would reach the participants, or how involved they would feel, but the feedback could not be any better” or so reflects the answers given on one of the queries of the evaluation questionnaire, shown below.

 

                                                                                                            Some of the answers of of the feedback questionaire  Credit: NUCLIO

 

This edition’s main topic was “Exploring stars and other worlds” and started with an opening speech by the course coordinators Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio, from IAC, and NUCLIO’s Rosa Doran, also including a speech given by the IAC's Deputy Director, Casiana Muñoz Tuñón, who welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of the teachers' work in getting new generations interested in science.

 

The course was formally started with an “Introduction to Astronomy” given by IAC’s researcher Héctor Socas Navarro, where he discussed topics such as the Sun, the Solar System, exoplanets or the characteristics of the interstellar medium, among others.

 

Rosa Doran continued with a lecture about Inquiry Based Learning (IBL), a student-centered educational methodology which aims to foster student’s curiosity and problem-solving skills.

 

“How to update your classroom to 21st century” was the main subject of day 2, where STEM learning tools like Stellarium for IBL were discussed.

FTP’s Fraser Lewis, on day 3, explained the educative program Faulkes Telescope Project, and different IBL systems based on robotic telescopes around the world, whereas IAC’s Nayra Rodriguez told about PETeR, another educative initiative using robotic telescopes. 

To finalize, an introduction to EU-HOU’S  free astronomical software, named SalsaJ, was given.

 

 

The organizers and lecturers of AEACI 2020 Credit: IAC

 

 

Day 4 was really interesting, it started with a lecture by Felipe Murgas talking about exoplanets, and the main discoveries we have made about this in recent years. It continued with Fraser Lewis showing how to use the astronomical software SalsaJ to measure the brightness of different stellar objects.

Other astronomical tools like PeterSoft and Muniwin were used to the rest of the activities included in day 4, such as measuring the light curve of a distant quasar, or discovering variable stars.

 

On the final day of the course it was our turn. First, CESAR general supervisor Michel Breitfellner explained participants what CESAR project is, followed by CESAR’s Space Science Experience's coordinator Beatriz González explaining to the audience how to use the astronomical tool ESASky to develop scientific cases.

 

Overall, it was a very interesting online course, where organizers received a lot of good feedback, clearing the way to the realization of many more. 

 

 

COVER CREDIT: IAC/NUCLIO