Testing the flight of foam rockets at Blackrock Castle Observatory
2 May 2012
Following on from the success of last year, the European Space Education Office (ESERO) Ireland is offering primary school teachers a unique opportunity to attend a five day, Department of Education and Skills approved, professional development course where they will learn how they can develop numeracy skills in an integrated way through the theme of space.
The three courses, entitled ‘Maths – It is rocket science’ will take place in Dublin’s Dunsink Observatory in Castleknock from July 2nd to 6th, Cork’s Blackrock Castle Observatory on the same week, and in the Centre for Astronomy in NUI Galway between July 9th and 13th.
The courses will focus on assisting participants to use teaching practices relevant to the current curriculum, with the emphasis on enquiry based learning.
ESERO Ireland is offering up to five bursaries to cover costs for teachers travelling to each course from a location more than 65km’s distance from the three locations in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Worth €250 in total the bursaries are to be set aside for fuel and accommodation expenses for the five days of the course.
The course will begin with hands-on sessions based around Discover Primary Science and Maths activities, and participants will explore ways to improve the mathematics skills of their students while also gaining a further appreciation of the possibilities that exist in the science and geography curricula.
In keeping with the course venues the Space and Astronomy related themes of the week will be explored in great detail, having been developed using the International Space Station Education Kit. Dunsink Observatory is one of the oldest scientific institutions in Ireland and Blackrock Castle Observatory is an accredited DPSM Discover Centre.
The NUIG course will include a day-trip to Birr Castle, which is also an accredited Discover Primary Science and Maths Discover Centre, and counts Ireland’s Historic Science Centre and the Great Telescope amongst its many attractions.
ESERO Ireland manager Ann Fitzpatrick notes the impact that last year’s course in Blackrock Castle Observatory made on those who attended, “Every teacher who took part last year took so much from it; practical ideas outlined in the course that they could simply integrate into their teaching of science, geography and maths. The feedback we received was that everything they worked on was relevant to the classroom and that the experiments they were shown were easy to replicate. They were also brought up to speed on the wealth of online materials available to support learning in this area and were excited to bring what they learned back to their students. This year’s courses in Dublin, Cork and Galway promise more of the same.”
For information on how to book a place, see the event on science.ie
