Report on 1^st ESO-EAAE Astronomy Summer School

The 1^st ESO-EAAE Astronomy Summer School took place in the ESO headquarters in Garching (Germany) from 19^th to 23^rd July 2007.
Fifty participants from 17 countries attended a group of activities related to "STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING OF ASTRONOMY".
Teachers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, and the UK exchanged information in the field of teaching astronomy, spread over 4 General Lectures, 9 Workshops, 2 General Working Groups, 2 Observation sessions and 1 Poster session.

General Lectures

• 1. EUROPEAN EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPE: E-ELT, Roberto Gilmozzi, ESO
• 2. ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETER/SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY: ALMA, Paola Andreani, ESO
• 3. SUPERNOVAE: THE EXPLODING STARS, Ferdinando Patat, ESO
• 4. AT CROSSROADS - THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE EDUCATION IN EUROPE Claus Madsen, ESO

Workshops

• 1. CHANGES IN THE SKY - DIGITALLY, Sakari Ekko, EAAE Finland
• 2. ETA CARINAE - RECONSTRUCTION OF A MAJOR ASTRONOMICAL EVENT, Ilgonis Vilks, Alexandre Costa, EAAE Latvia, EAAE Portugal
• 3. EXPERIMENTS AND EXERCISES INVOLVING GRAVITATIONAL LENSES, Rosa M. Ros, EAAE Spain
• 4. FROM THE ARMILLARY SPHERE TO THE ASTROLABE, Renelle TAKVORIAN, EAAE France
• 5. LET'S MAKE A PORTRAIT OF A GALAXY, Veselka Radeva, EAAE Bulgaria
• 6. OBSERVATIONS WITH A PINHOLE CAMERA, Sakari Ekko, EAAE Finland
• 7. PARALLAX - IT'S SIMPLE, Ilgonis Vilks, Alexandre Costa, EAAE Latvia, EAAE Portugal
• 8. STUDY OF THE SUN'S ROTATION, Renelle TAKVORIAN, EAAE France
• 9. WHAT MAKES A STAR SO SPECIAL?, Veselka Radeva, EAAE Bulgaria
• 10. PREPARING OBSERVATIONS EAAE instructors

General Working Groups

• 1. TEACHING ASTRONOMY IN EUROPEAN SCHOOLS: THE BEST AND THE WORST Rosa M. Ros, Ilgonis Vilks, EAAE, Spain, Latvia
• 2. ESO'S EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES, Douglas Pierce-Price, ESO

Posters

• 1. ASSESSING "TEACHING ASTRONOMY IN LA PALMA"
• 2. ASTRONOMICAL SUMMER SCHOOL - MY NEW OPPORTUNITY TO TEACH ASTRONOMY IN A NEW WAY
• 3. ASTRONOMY EDUCATION IN THE UK. CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
• 4. ASTRONOMY TEACHING IN COOPERATION WITH THE ITALIAN COLLEAGUE
• 5. ASTRO PARTY-STARS IN SCHOOL'S LIFE
• 6. EXPLORA EL UNIVERSO - UNIVERSE AWARENESS
• 7. HOW CAN WE EXPLAIN THE BORN OF THE CRATERS OF THE MOON OR MARS?
• 8. SCIENCE GET ON IN LIFE: LIGHTED JOURNEYS OF KNOWLEDGE, INFORMAL AND POPULAR OF THE ISS (EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE TEACHING)
• 9. THE GNOMON AND ISS (EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE TEACHING)
• 10. THE "HELLO PLUTO!" CONTEST: A PART OF FOUR YEARS OF INNOVATION IN SCIENCE EDUCATION IN CHILEAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The organisers encouraged active participation by everybody through personal contributions to the poster session, in the common discussions or in the general working groups. In order to promote the exchange of information, each participant received the Proceedings, which included all the activities of the Summer School.

The Welcome Lectures of the opening session were presented by Mr. Claus Madsen (Head of the ESO Public Affairs Department), Mr Fernand Wagner (President of EAAE), and Dr. Rosa M. Ros (Chair of the 1^st ESO-EAAE Astronomy Summer School).

We spent the morning and the first part of the afternoon in General Lectures and Workshops, the second part of each afternoon in General Working Groups and Poster sessions. The Observation session took place on the evening of the second day of the course. The weather was not good for observation by means of amateur telescopes, but the video link with ESO - El Paranal (Chile) was excellent. On Sunday afternoon we visited the astronomy section of the Deutsches Museum and enjoyed free time in Munich.

In the closing session Mr Claus Madsen gave a general lecture and presented certificates to all the participants.