Speaker
Description
In 2021, the European Solar Telescope (EST) consortium organized the international competition “The Sun at a glance” to show the potential of the Sun for teaching science at school. Here we briefly describe the main organizational aspects, and the results of this activity.
The competition was designed to encourage students to research about the Sun and present their results in the form of an infographic. The activity was open to small groups of students in the age ranges 14-15 and 15-16, led by a teacher. The prizes included a visit to Teide Observatory in Tenerife (Spain) for the two teams producing the best designs. A dedicated website (www.est-east.eu/contest) was set up to provide the participants with general information, the announcement poster, the official rules, and the national points of contact.
This activity raised extraordinary interest in the European education community. A total of 2,859 students and 303 teachers from 242 schools signed up for the competition, representing 16 European countries. The infographics they submitted were used to build the EST Solarpedia, a comprehensive solar encyclopedia hosted on the EST website. The EST Solarpedia is a unique educational resource open to the teaching community and the general public, a legacy that will stand for years to come.
