5. newsletter

Dear reader,

We have prepared for you the last fifth newsletter dedicated to the transnational project STARS (Successfully Teaching AstRonomy in Schools) that publishing house of primary and secondary schools´ textbooks EXPOL PEDAGOGIKA ltd. has started to implement in November 2017 in cooperation with six other partners from three European countries – Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

We would like to give you current information about what we have done so far in the project, how we have been dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and what is planned for the last period of the project.

We believe that together we will succeed in achieving our main goal – to support the teachers teaching astronomy at lower secondary education. Various researches have shown the fact that in most education systems in Central and Eastern Europe, teachers struggle to highlight the interrelation of subjects due to lack of resources and sometimes even information on certain topics. This is extremely valid information with regard to the instruction of astronomy-related subjects.

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STARS partners

This project has been co-funded with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme, K2 action, Strategic Partnerships in School Education. Project Agreement Number: 2017-1-SK01-KA201-035344

The current publication reflects the author´s view only and neither the Slovak National Agency, nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Since November 2017, the publishing house of primary and secondary schools´ textbooks EXPOL PEDAGOGIKA ltd. situated in Bratislava (www.expolpedagogika.sk) has been implementing the transnational project STARS (Successfully Teaching AstRonomy in Schools) whose aim is to support the teachers teaching astronomy at lower secondary education. At the project that is almost at its end there are six partners from three different countries participating together with us – Slovakia, Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Our aim is to equip teachers with comprehensive methods and tools to improve their teaching practices, as well as concrete ideas of how to present a given topic in astronomy-related curriculum.

What have we done in the project so far?

We worked at different project tasks and outputs together with project partners during the period from September 2019 until June 2020. We have finalised Methodological Handbook for Teachers (O1) and prepared 3 different language versions of it (Slovak, Czech, and Bulgarian) for print. We have tested 1st version of Training Programme for Teachers (O2) at partner schools and collected feedback from them. Their comments and ideas were incorporated into the final version by university partners (UWB, BAS). Project partner M7 has created a pilot version of STARS Online platform (O3) which has been tested subsequently by other partners. We have also started to work at the last intellectual output – Concept for Astronomy Education Programme (O4) – the task for University of West Bohemia as a project partner was to suggest possible structure and content of this output.

4^th Transnational project meeting of STARS partners (M4)

Due to the situation with the spreading of the virus COVID-19 that occurred in Europe during March 2020 we had to postpone certain project activities to other dates and cancel them at the end. This was the case of the last project meeting M4 which was scheduled for 25^th – 27^th March 2020 in Pilsen. After few postponings we decided to organise the last project meeting on 16^th June 2020 in online version via Zoom application. The representatives of all project partners from three different countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Bulgaria) attended the online meeting.

• Grammar School Metodova 2 Bratislava; M7 ltd. (SVK)
• The University of West Bohemia in Pilsen; Primary School at Říčany Wood (CZ)
• Bulgarian Astronomical Society; High School of Mathematics akad. Kiril Popov, Plovdiv (BG)

The coordinator and the organiser of the project meeting was textbooks´ publishing house EXPOL PEDAGOGIKA ltd.

Content of the meeting was:

• presentation and analysis of the final structure and overall outlook of STARS Online Platform (O3),
• presentation of the 1st version of structure and content of the STARS Concept for Astronomy Education Programme (O4),
• organisation and programme of Multiplier event (E1) in alternate date and in online version,
• changes in the project due to COVID-19 pandemic situation and their impact on intellectual outputs and project itself.

The aim of the meeting was:

• to present created overall design and structure of the Online Platform (O3) to other project partners, analyse it and then discuss it with them,
• to introduce the 1st version of the structure and content of the Concept for Astronomy Education Programme (O4) and then discuss it with the partners,
• to plan and organise Multiplier event (E1) in alternate date in August 2020 and in a format of online conference via Zoom application,
• to present tasks for each project partner during the last period of the project – the project STARS has been prolonged until 31st of August 2020.

Multiplier event (E1)

Due to global pandemic situation with spreading COVID-19, we have decided to organise the last multiplier event of the project STARS on 26^th August 2020 (Wednesday) in the format of online conference. The event will be accessible via Zoom application from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. for free and to all people who are interested to learn more about STARS project and created intellectual outputs. Programme of the online conference and the speakers will be introduced at the beginning of August. We will also inform you about the way how to register for the conference.

What is going to happen next in the project?

• development of the final version of the STARS Online Platform (O3);
• preparation of the structure and content of the final version of the Concept for Astronomy Education Programme (O4);
• creation of the final versions of all intellectual outputs and their translation into English language;
• multiplier event (E1) in the format of online conference in August 2020;
• successful finishing of the project STARS and submission of the Final report about the project.

Where can you find us?

More information about the project STARS and what is currently happening is available at our official webpage and at our Facebook profile:

• web: http://www.project-stars.com/
• FB: https://www.facebook.com/pg/project.stars.erasmus/posts/?ref=page_internal