ESA Science & Technology - ESA/GTTP workshop - the programme

09:00-10:30

Welcome by ESA & GTTP

Practical instructions

09:00-10:30

Session 4

GTTP classroom activity: Stellarium

09:00-10:30

Session 8

ESA Science classroom activity

11:00-13:30

Session 1

GTTP classroom activity: Salsa J

11:00-13:30

Session 5

GTTP classroom activity: Faulkes Telescope

11:00-13:30

Session 9

GTTP classroom activity: Universe Quest

14:30-16:00

Session 2

ESA Education resources

European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO)

14:30-16:00

Session 6

ESA data archives - how to access them and how to use them

Career opportunities in space science

14:30-16:00

Session 10

Feedback & Discussion

16:30-18:00

Session 3

GTTP classroom activity: Sun4all

16:30-18:00

Session 7

GTTP classroom activity: Discover an exoplanet

Stellarium

Stellarium is an exceptional tool for teaching astronomy. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, similar to what can be seen with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It can be used in the classroom to demonstrate countless facts, like the movement of planets and stars, the constellations, what objects can be seen from different geographical places at different times of the year, the different brightness of the objects, etc. It can also be used as part of the preparation of an observing run, allowing the user to carefully choose the objects to observe, at the right time of the night.

With this session, participants will learn:

• how to get Stellarium (it is free) and install it in their computer;
• how to configure it in conformity with the use one will make of it;
• some activities suitable for the classroom;
• how to use Stellarium to prepare an observing session.

Faulkes Telescopes

The Faulkes Telescopes are two 2m telescopes located in professional observatories, one in Hawaii and the other one in Australia, which can be used for educational purposes. Both telescopes are fully operated via internet, which allows students in the classroom, during day time, to observe the night sky in Hawaii and Australia. Remotely operated telescopes enable students to do real observations without the problems that arise with a night out in the field. Moreover, the Faulkes Telescopes provide students with telescopes and instruments adequate for research.

With this session, participants will learn:

• how to use the Faulkes Telescopes;
• about projects that can be accomplished with the Faulkes Telescopes.

SalsaJ

SalsaJ is an image processing software that reads FITS files – a file format widely used in astronomy. With SalsaJ, one can manipulate and analyze astronomy images in a professional way. Raw astronomical images are not very useful - the information we can extract from an image is highly dependent on the operations we perform on it and on the analysis. SalsaJ has been developed to perform most of the tasks that astronomy images are subject to, including making wonderful colour images from single filter images.

With this session participants will learn:

• how to get SalsaJ (it is free) and install it in their computer;
• what a CCD image is;
• how to look in different ways at an astronomy image;
• how to perform operations with images;
• how to analyze an image;
• some activities suitable for the classroom;
• how to build a colour image.

Sun4All

The project Sun4All is based on the rich asset of over 30,000 images of the Sun that are kept at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra (Portugal), as a result of more than 80 years of daily solar observations. Some of those images have been digitized and have been made available via internet. Sun4All offers schools the opportunity to use the database of solar images, obtained with three different filters, at this point spanning over three decades. Sun4All has prepared a set of activities that can be undertaken by middle and high-school students and that will teach them about the different phenomena known as solar activity, and the solar cycle.

With this session, participants will learn:

• how to get solar images from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra;
• what information from different phenomena one has from images taken with different filters;
• some activities suitable for the classroom, like calculating the solar rotational period, the duration of the solar cycle, the dimensions of solar flares;
• using SalsaJ to accomplish some Sun4All activities;
• ideas for future projects using the solar database.

Discover an exoplanet

Since the first exoplanet was discovered, in 1995, there have been 335 exoplanets identified (as of December 2008). There are different methods of detection, the most effective ones being: radial velocity measurements and transits. The second technique is based on detecting the luminosity variation of the star when the planet passes in front of it. Using a sample of 20 real images of a field where there is a star that has an exoplanet, students can discover this star on their own. They will have to build light curves for different stars and see which one hosts a planet.

With this session, participants will learn:

• about different techniques that astronomers use to discover exoplanets;
• what a light curve is and how to build one;
• a complete exercise suitable for the classroom, which enables students to discover a star that has an exoplanet orbiting it.

Universe Quest

This Thinking Worlds^TM  authoring tool software can be used to build curriculum content in a game-like environment and to evaluate progress of the students.

With this session, participants will learn:

• how to use the software;
• about the capabilities of the tool.