IAC 2010 Professional Development Programme – Workshop for primary and secondary school teachers – “How to teach astronautics”

On Saturday, the 25 September 2010, in the Prague Congress Center, the Educator Professional Development workshop for primary and secondary Czech teachers was held at the 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC). The workshops were organized by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Czech Republic (MEYS, MŠMT in Czech), Czech Space Office (CSO) and the Space Education and Outreach Committee (SEOC) of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in collaboration with the International Space Education Board (ISEB). 

Start of the workshop (credits:CSO)

The 11 Czech teachers and 12 foreign participants, organizers and lecturers divided into two groups, elementary and high-school teachers.

Videogreeting from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (credits: CSO)

As part of theintroduction, videotalk was presented  by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield from Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where he was preparing for his next space mission.
In his keynote presentation, called “The Challenges and Opportunities of Living and Working in Space”, he very engagingly talked about his two space missions, what he saw from the orbital station MIR and from International Space station (ISS), how the cosmonauts and astronauts work and what they are doing and are interested in their free time in space. 

Introduction of workshop participants (credits:CSO)

Following program was split into two parallel sessions, one for the primary school teachers and the second for the secondary school teachers. Both sessions were focused on ways how to implement astronautics into primary and secondary education, not only in the Czech Republic. 

Workshop participants (credits: CSO)

Presentations for primary schools called “3, 2, 1, Liftoff – Rocketry” and “How to Explore Mars”, presented and moderated by postdoctoral American and Canadian students, representing National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) CSA, were focused on active form of students’ interaction into solving questions focused on physics, astronomy, technology and other themes.
Teachers afterwards practically tried to build and optimized 2-stage compressed air rocket (from straws, clips and inflatable balls) and simulated influences of climate changes to modelled Mars surface.

Tools for practical experements (credits: CSO)

In the secondary school session, the students, representing NASA and CSA, presented topics about “Building Spacecraft – An Engineering Marvel for the 21st Century” and “Robots Explore”. In the first presentation, the processes of satellite development, construction, lift-off up to space orbit and operating complications were described. And the second one was focused to students’ robotic projects – e.g. sphere-shaped robots, flies in the ISS residential areas, communicating together and measuring data, which are afterward analyzed by students from American universities.
These sessions included practical experiments too, e.g. usage of solar panels energy, satellite position stabilization with gyroscope and inertia force and construction of functional robotic arms.