Diapositive 1

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Hands-On Universe
A NEW VISION FOR ASTRONOMY/SCIENCE EDUCATION A
MISSION TO REAWAKEN STUDENTS INTEREST FOR SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY A NETWORK OF SCIENTISTS AND
EDUCATORS WORKING TOGETHER
Roger FERLET Institut dAstrophysique
de Paris
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Hands-On Universe

• Stimulate the excitement for science
• Reverse the  cant do  attitude to math and
  science
• Scientific culture ? Literate citizens
• Acquisition of key skills
• Development of critical thinking
• Problem solving experience (promote the
  scientific method)
• Teachers continuous professional training
• Communicate the intrinsic value and worth of
  research to
• a much broader audience
• Foster scientific vocations

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Science as an exciting learning
activity Bring actual research data into
classrooms learning science by doing
science (possibly till opening the way for the
students and teachers to contribute to astronomy)
HOW ?

• Use of interactive astronomy
• Possibility to observe with
  robotic telescopes,
• to acquire and process
  astronomical data
• Possibility to use data from the
  Virtual Observatory
• Possibility to run advanced
  computer simulations
• Use of frontline astronomy
• The resources are developed
  in close collaboration
• between researchers and
  teachers
• Use of real astronomical data
• Resources ready to be used by teachers
• Flexible enough to allow
  teachers or pupils to go further
• Network to share educational tools,
  experience/ideas and support

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http//www.euhou.net
http//www.euhou.net
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Hands-On Universe, Europe Bringing frontline
interactive astronomy to the classroom
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France) -
F-HOU Coordinator Karl-Franzens-Universitaet
Graz (Austria) Observatoire royal de Belgique
Lykeio Agiou Nikolaou (Cyprus) Astronomicky
ustav Akademie (Ceske Republiky) National
Observatory of Athens (Greece) Cork Institute
of Technology (Ireland) Fondazione IDIS
Citta Della Scienza (Italy) Centrum Fizyki
Teoretycznej Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Poland)
Nucleo Interactivo de Astronomia (Portugal)
Universitatea Din Craiova (Romania) Universidad
Complutense de Madrid (Spain) Onsala Space
Observatory, Chalmers University (Sweden)
Cardiff University (United Kingdom)
CYPRUS
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Overall objectives

• Production of new innovative pedagogical
  resources users-friendly software,
• astronomical data, exercises, multimedia
  supports trans-disciplinary in essence
• (astronomy, physics, mathematics, history,
  language...) available in English and
• in different European languages.
• Pedagogical use of worldwide telescope networks
  operated remotely via Internet.
• New innovative observing tools (webcam system,
  radio-antenna...) to be used
• directly by pupils (at no cost).
• Creation of a network of researchers and
  teachers for promotion of scientific and
• technological education help to bring actual
  research data into classrooms.
• A specific web site with a free access
  multilingual portal to all available resources
• with means for sharing experience.
• Dissemination through workshops and teacher
  training sessions.

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Robotic Telescopes in Education
Motivating to study science/maths/ICT/technology
Optical telescopes Faulkes LCOGT INO Radio
telescopes Onsala Jodrell Bank
Cutting edge technology Cross-curricular,
contribute to key skills Exciting and stimulating
projects Student ownership of projects Thrill of
real discovery
Exciting Inspiring Educational
Real time, real science
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Pedagogical resources SalsaJ
software
Didactical software for image and data handling
Such A Lovely Software for
Astronomy, in Java

• Multi-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac)
• Java, modularity easily extensible to
  implement new fonctionnalities
• Adaptation in different languages recently in
  arabic chinese in progress
• Free of charge (download from the EU-HOU web
  site)
• Up to date sources (derived from the free
  medical research tool ImageJ
• developed at NIH) adapted to astronomy
  friendly tool for classrooms

Developed by F-HOU SalsaJ v2.0 to be released
soon
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SalsaJ a
multilingual interface
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Pedagogical resources
exercises
Learning science by doing science hands-on
activities based on real astronomical

data, inspired from research
From the Doppler effect to extrasolar
planets Distances to Cepheids estimation of the
Hubble constant The black hole at the centre of
the Milky Way How to weight a distant galaxy ?
Rotation curve and dark matter Radio astronomy in
the classroom hydrogen in the Milky Way The
solar system as a math laboratory The life of
stars stellar population Craters and volcanoes
in the solar system Etc..
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http//www.euhou.net
Web site

• 1 European portal and 8 (14) national sites
  (http//www.fr.euhou.net/, etc.)
• with a Content Management System (CMS).
• Each site is composed of a public Web site
• an
  internal Web site/publication interface
• an
  administration interface
• a
  forum news
• Hosted by the server of the project (located in
  the UPMC computing centre,
• daily back-up baies RAID)
• Each partner is responsible
  of his national site.

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We are ready to welcome new partners within the
web site
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Dissemination teacher training
Network of researchers and teachers for promoting
scientific and technological education, for
inspiring pupils
Training Resource Agents (TRA) are teachers
eager to ? learn about the various EU-HOU
outputs ? adapt European resources to national
curricula ? use them in their schools ? train
other teachers/educators about the resources
Training workshops in English are proposed to TRA
(cost covered) gt 100 teachers These have
trained hundreds of teachers in their countries.
Presence in events, festivals..
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Teachers / Educators Training
A learning and teaching experience A Global
community of engaged educators
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Developing Global Hands-on Universe

• To make global education and science exciting,
  useful and more accessible to everyone in the
  world

We are all lying in the gutter but some of us
look up at the stars

Oscar Wilde
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Richard Lohman, George Smoot, and Carl
Pennypacker in video conference with Kenya High
School
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• THANK YOU

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