Practices

Thematic Field: Maths, Science and Technology
EU-HOU: Hands-On Universe teacher training and support program
Comenius Multilateral Project
Institutions involved:
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France), Observatoire royal de Belgique - Planétarium
de Bruxelles (Belgium), Lykeio Agiou Nikolaou (Cyprus), Förderverein Astropeiler
Stockert e.V. (Germany), Instituto Diastimikon Efarmogon & Tilepiskopisis, Ethniko
Asteroskopio Athinon (Greece), Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika W Toruniu -
UMK (Poland) NUCLIO – Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia (Portugal), Universitatea
din Craiova (Romania) , Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), Vetenskapens
Hus (Sweden), University of Glamorgan (United Kingdom)
Coordinating institution:
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France)
Key words: Teacher education, Hands-on learning, Inquiry-based pedagogies
Description:
The project specialises in research in astronomy and aims to increase students'
interest in science. The project provides resources for high school teachers and
the organization of a network of pilot schools and resource persons. The educational
material is posted on the Web site of the project. The project gives the opportunity to
develop educational tools of high quality as part of a European partnership, and create
situations at the interface between research and teaching.
The exercises developed by EU-HOU are designed to promote active learning by
giving students real astronomical data and the tools to analyse them simply and
easily in their own classroom. The project work is based on actual astronomical
observations, often acquired by the pupils themselves. It uses a network of European
and international automatic telescopes operated via Internet as well as dedicated tools
(Webcam systems, radio telescopes) developed for this project. These observations
can be carried out in class, and their analysis with software designed for educational
purposes. Educational resources have been built in close collaboration between
researchers and teachers in partner countries.
EU-HOU started in 2004 and is now in its third phase “2010-2012 EU-HOU -
Connecting classrooms to the Milky Way”. In the “Connecting classrooms to the
Milky Way” project, EU-HOU is developing the first European network of radio
telescopes for education, enabling schools to explore the Milky Way through the
Internet, as well as inquiry-based pedagogical resources to be used in
classrooms.
Duration:
2010 – 2012 (third phase)
Webpage:
http://www.euhou.net/
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