How “Discover the COSMOS” and “PATHWAY” are changing the science education in European high schools.

Abstract

It has been noted by various reports that during recent years, there has been an alarming decline in young people’s interest for science studies and mathematics. Since it is believed that the traditional teaching methods often fail to foster positive attitudes towards learning science, the European Commission has made intensive efforts to promote science education in schools though new methods based on the inquiry based techniques: questions, search and answers. This is coupled to hands-on experience, playful learning accompanied by laboratory exercises and examples.

“Discover the COSMOS” is such a project which brings into synergy resources from high energy, astronomy and space physics to promote e-Science in Europe. Event analysis tools from the ATLAS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider of CERN -such as the “hunt for the Higgs” application- as well as time slices in various robotic telescopes around the world and the related software to process the images, are all available as educational scenaria for both the students and the educators. Moreover, the best practices are presented in a more theoretical for the teachers in the “Pathway” project. Examples of the available resources as well as first results from the evaluation of the programs are presented.