Dr. Sofoklis Sotiriou ELLINOGERMANIKI AGOGI EDEN 2003 ANNUAL CONFERENCE Rhodes 15 – 18 June 2003 Teaching Science with a Robotic Telescope

EUDOXOS Partnership Partnership Project’s description Project’s description Aims and Objectives Aims and Objectives User’s Interface User’s Interface Project’s Run Project’s Run Educational Activities Educational Activities Evaluation Evaluation Future plans Future plans

NCSR, "Demokritos“, Coordinator, Greece NCSR, "Demokritos“, Coordinator, Greece Ellinogermaniki Agogi, GreeceEllinogermaniki Agogi, Greece University of Athens, Pedagogical Department, GreeceUniversity of Athens, Pedagogical Department, Greece University of Cadiz, SpainUniversity of Cadiz, Spain Management Center Innsbruck, AustriaManagement Center Innsbruck, Austria 4 European High Schools, Greece, Austria, Italy, Spain4 European High Schools, Greece, Austria, Italy, Spain The Partnership

Project’s description The Eudoxos project utilizes a 60cm Cassegrain type remotely controlled robotic telescope with large-format CCD camera, in order to develop a framework to teach science subjects to High School students through an interdisciplinary approach, spanning through the areas of mathematics, statistics, chemistry, physics etc. and of course astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. Students and teachers from 4 European schools are involved in extended trials in the framework of the their normal school curriculum. The robotic telescope is installed in the Eudoxos National Observatory on the Ainos mountain of Kefallinia Island (Ionian Sea), Greece.

Kefallinia Island, Greece

Eudoxos Observatory

Andreas Michalitsianos Telescope

Aims and Objectives The development of a pedagogical framework that will allow successful application of the emerging technology in everyday learning enhancement of a constructivist approach in science teaching development of a new educational tool and learning environment development of a concrete evaluation scheme of educational and technological aspects

User Interface

Development of Lesson plans Teachers training Two cycles of school-centered work in real school environments Evaluation of the educational and technological aspects Project’s run

Educational Activities The students have the opportunity: To make astronomical observations To make astronomical observations To collect data To collect data To analyze the astronomical data To analyze the astronomical data To exchange opinions To exchange opinions To communicate their results To communicate their results

Measuring the height of the lunar craters

Asteroids’ Rotation Periods

Does the Sun Rotate?

Evaluation of the pedagogical framework Evaluation of the student’s learning Ethnographic evaluation Evaluation of the project

Evaluation framework Experimental Group TIMSS III ICT Tests Phase A Phase B TIMSS II ICT Monitoring ΤΙMSS Control Group TIMSS II ICT TIMSS III ICT Tests pre-test Running post-test

Future plans The development of network of telescopes for educational use The development of network of telescopes for educational use (collaboration with the University of San Diego, Chile) (collaboration with the University of San Diego, Chile) The addition of new exercises to the lesson plans to cover more The addition of new exercises to the lesson plans to cover more scientific topics as possible scientific topics as possible Using satellite channel to optimize the internet connection of the Using satellite channel to optimize the internet connection of the telescope telescope

The Eudoxos Project is partly financed by the European Commission in the framework of the program eLearning Action Plan - Preparatory and innovative actions