European Space Education Resource Office launched in Ireland
Posted on November 24th, 2009 in General
On Thursday 19th November, Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation announced the launch of the European Space Education Resource Office in a €475,000 project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) to promote the wider study of science using space as a theme in schools.
The launch event was held at Belvedere College S.J, Dublin, where students were shown a scale model of the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory, which has the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope. At 3.5-metres in diameter the mirror has just begun to collect long-wavelength radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe. In addition, Herschel will be the only space observatory to cover a spectral range from the far infrared to sub-millimetre.
The new programme will provide educational materials and activities that will make science more exciting to young people studying science in school.
The establishment of a European Space Education Resource Office is a major milestone for science education in Ireland. Space has always captured the imagination of young people and this investment programme aims to support science education in schools with the hope that more students will eventually go on to pursue careers in Ireland’s space industry.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Hello folks.
Nice idea, but just out of curiousity how will this “make science more exciting to young people studying science in school”?
The shelves on science resource rooms are overflowing with teaching ‘packs’ that never see the light of day because they have only a passing acquaintaince with the syllabus (and ususally involve copious amounts of photopying, which invariably ends in the bin).
Would time and effort not be better spent going straight to the nub of the problem and putting space science (which certainly does grab the imagination of the troops) on both the junior and senior science syllabus? There is even a draft version of a new physics syllabus for leaving cert students and it still doesn’t have any cosmology on it.
And it wouldn’t cost half a million euro.
Just a thought.
Noel
December 8th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Thanks for the comment Noel. I understand where you are coming from and your feedback is noted. What we hope the ESERO will achieve is to create opportunities for students to engage in activities like competitions, educational programmes and other outreach activities in order for them to experience a more investigative approach to science. We are still in the planning phase, so the full list of initiatives has not been agreed yet, but rest assured it will not simply consist of teaching packs that gather dust on shelves. As you may know we are an awareness body and do not directly input into the syllabus. However, we will take on board your comments as we develop the ESERO programme over the next three months and we will consider in particular how best existing ESERO teaching resources can be adapted to the Irish curriculum.