ESIA

FRONTIERS e-Winter School 2021

29 January-7 February 2021

Do you believe that exciting discoveries such as the Discovery of Gravitational Waves or the Discovery of the Higgs Boson can be brought in the classroom in a consistent and understandable fashion? Can you imagine your students performing virtual visits to CERN or VIRGO, analyzing real experimental data and interacting with world leading scientists in the field of Physics? Would you like to become a member of a pan-European community of teachers and researchers aiming to introduce Nobel Prize Physics to Your school?

If the answer to the questions above is yes, we have great news for you: FRONTIERS, the European initiative for bringing Nobel Prize Physics to the classroom announces its first international e-winter school!

Find out more about the winter school here: https://indico.ego-gw.it/event/133

Who  should participate?
Secondary science teachers and primary school teachers from across the world are welcome to join.

Max number of participants:
Up to 30 teachers. As the positions are limited, all applications will be subject to evaluation. The participation deadline is the 20th of January 2021 and the final participants will be announced at the 22nd of January 2021.

What do I need to do to participate? 

  • Register clicking on the registration button below and fill the accompanying google form here.
  • Join the project here
  • Your participation includes at least: participation in the keynote speeches section ; participation in at least one module described in the program and its working group; participation in the evaluation of the winter school; participation in the final presentation of your working group . You can select to participate in more than one modules.
  • You will have to select at least one of the modules described in the program section and prepare for it by browsing the relevant materials presented in the materials section.
  • Fill the pre- questionnaire which will be emailed to you before you join the winter school and the post questionnaire at the end.
Register now

Description

Do you believe that exciting discoveries such as the Discovery of Gravitational Waves or the Discovery of the Higgs Boson can be brought in the classroom in a consistent and understandable fashion? Can you imagine your students performing virtual visits to CERN or VIRGO, analyzing real experimental data and interacting with world leading scientists in the field of Physics? Would you like to become a member of a pan-European community of teachers and researchers aiming to introduce Nobel Prize Physics to Your school?

If the answer to the questions above is yes, we have great news for you: FRONTIERS, the European initiative for bringing Nobel Prize Physics to the classroom announces its first international winter school!

In the FRONTIERS e-winter school you will:

  • Learn about the latest news in frontier Physics research by leading experts in the field.
  • Train on educational activities developed by leading experts in frontier Physics research and science education which focus on frontier Physics, how to bring it to your classroom.
  • Perform hands-on activities using simple exhibits and experimental setups investigating aspects of Modern Physics as well as use real data to perform scientific investigations.
  • Perform virtual visits to large research infrastructures in Physics.
  • Investigate the FRONTIERS pedagogical methodology and train in the use of educational tools offered to bring Nobel prize Physics to your classroom.
  • Collaborate with fellow teachers and researchers to co-create educational activities on Modern Physics which will be disseminated across Europe.
  • Help shape the future of Europe’s curricula in the field of Modern Physics.

I want to learn more

Objectives

The FRONTIERS e-Winter School is an online training course for science teachers motivated to introduce Nobel Prize Physics to their Classrooms. Its objectives are:

  • The introduction of the participants to the FRONTIERS pedagogical design and its proposed activities for bringing Nobel Prize Physics to the classroom.
  • The co-creation of a series of educational activities by the teachers in collaboration with their peers and FRONTIERS experts that will be shared to all schools in Europe.
  • The discussion of the merits and barriers of introducing Nobel Prize Physics to the Classroom and presentation of the FRONTIERS methodology to achieve that.

Methodology

The FRONTIERS Winter School brings together educators, researchers in frontier Physics and researchers in science education in order to create a joint framework for introducing frontier Physics in K12 education.

Through training workshops from world leading experts in frontier Physics, participants will be given the opportunity to delve deeper in cutting edge Physics topics such as the detection of gravitational waves from the VIRGO experiment, the detection of elementary particles from the ATLAS experiment at CERN or the detection of high energy cosmic neutrinos from the KM3NeT neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean.

Participants will be introduced to the pedagogical framework, curricular connections and educational tools developed by science education experts of the FRONTIERS consortium, in order to help introduce cutting edge scientific topics in their classroom. They will be offered step by step training to a wealth of educational resources, the “FRONTIERS demonstrators” which introduce concepts from Astrophysics and Gravitational Wave Astronomy to Particle and Astroparticle Physics using real data, demonstrations, simple experiments and online labs. They will learn how to use real data to optimize large research infrastructures in order to support scientists to reduce the noise of their experiments and facilitate new discoveries. Furthermore, participants will participate in virtual visits in large research infrastructures in Physics and will be able to discuss with practicing scientists in an authentic setting.
Finally, participants will collaborate with each other and with the experts of the FRONTIERS team in order to co-create educational content tailored for their needs and adapted to their respective school curricula. They will reflect on the process and will participate in a round table discussion to help offer recommendations for the modernization of Physics curricula in Europe.
The training will be active and collaborative through dedicated workshops and seminars. Post-course social media and online community platforms will be used to support ongoing development of ideas and group support and feedback.

Preparation

Requirements

  • Your participation includes at least: participation in the keynote speeches section ; participation in at least one module described in the program and its working group;  participation in the evaluation session ; participation in the final presentation of your working group. You can select to participate in more than one modules. Upon your registration, make sure that you fill this google form.
  • You will have to select at least one of the modules described in the program section and prepare for it by browsing the relevant materials presented in the materials section. Teachers will convene during partners’ offered “office hours” for questions and clarifications, and beyond that they will be offered a google classroom to work separately.
  • Fill the pre questionnaire which will be emailed to you before you join the summer school and the post questionnaire at the end of the summer school.

Preparation materials

To prepare for the FRONTIERS e-Winter school:
– Learn about the FRONTIERS project approach here
– Browse our educational resources here
– To learn more about how students can support the optimization of large research infrastructures in Physics click here.
– Make sure that you are familiar with the ZOOM, Google Slides and Google Classroom platforms.

Specific preparation per module

Every module consists of a 2 hr webinar in which the relevant educational resources are presented and teachers gain hands on experience with it. After this, a working group will be formed which will convene  within the duration of the winter school in order to produce educational content inspired by the FRONTIERS educational resources. In order to attend a working group, make sure that you have explored the relevant educational resources beforehand.

Module: Astroparticle Physics
– Explore the astroparticle Physics educational resources of FRONTIERS here (resource 1, resource 2, resource 3)

Module: High Energy Physics
– Explore the High Energy Physics educational resources of FRONTIERS here (resource 1, resource 2, resource 3, resource 4, resource 5)

Module: Astrophysics
– Explore the Astrophysics educational resources of FRONTIERS here (resource 1, resource 2, resource 3, resource 4 , resource 5, resource 6)

Module: Gravitational Wave Astronomy
– Explore the Gravitational Wave Astronomy educational resources of FRONTIERS here (resource 1, resource 2, resource 3, resource 4, resource 5, resource 6, resource 7 )

Follow-up, Recognition and Evaluation

At the end of the course, groups will share their work and feedback will be provided. As a follow-up, participants will have the opportunity to share ideas and suggestions about the possibility of implementation of the program in their classes creating an international school network. On return to their home locations participants will try out the different approaches with their students/pupils and share their experience and material with other participants through social media and online community platforms. The trainers will also give feedback and counselling through the same platform between training sessions.