May 10th to 24th, 2013

A number of teachers from a disseminated area in the region of Castilla la Mancha have been participating with their students in Discover the Cosmos' activities along the current academic year.

A total of nine (9) secondary schools have been engaged through months with the application 'Setting references when everything moves: stellar streams' in particular. Each teacher works with up to three different classrooms in groups of 10 to 25 students per class.

This region is particularly influenced by the presence of La Hita Astronomical Observatory, a partner that collaborates closely with Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The most used educational application (Setting references when everything moves) shows a considerable amount of data and images from the space collected by the astronomical complex: in particular, a set of images showing the entire region of Serpens.

For these reasons, there will be two different activities organized in the complex during May 2013. There will be a day-visit to the Observatory in which teachers and their students from different schools will meet, exchange and discuss their experiences. After, there will be a night-visit to the Observatory, when students will be able to observe through TEDI telescope (released this year for dissemination and educational purposes at the Observatory).

When talking with the teachers and exchanging opinions, most of them agreed that an emotional face-to-face meeting where students would meet other partners form different schools an share experiences will be a strong motivation to understand the importance and significance of participating in these models of education.

Plus, visiting the Observatory and realize how images of space are taken might be an extra motivational strength for students.