South Wales primary school teachers at Universe in the Classroom CPD.
Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy welcomed nine local primary school teachers last week, for the first in a series of Universe in the Classroom CPD training events to be held throughout the project.
The teachers were from nine different primary schools across South Wales, which ranged geographically from local schools in Cardiff to schools as far out as Newport. During the training session the teachers were given an opportunity to practise activities from the Universe-in-a-Box astronomy education toolkit and each topic was covered in more depth that in the toolkit’s activity book alone with additional topics including tidal locking, the scattering of light and distances in space.
The workshop also provided an opportunity for teachers ask any astronomical questions they had to the scientists hosting the session,
Activities at the first Universe in the Classroom full-day CPD in March 2014
but the main benefit was likely the sharing of best practise and ideas between the teachers in attending who were all given the opportunity towards the end of the day to plan a lesson utilising the free resources provided to them during the workshop.
At the end of the session, each school was awarded a free Universe-in-a-Box toolkit and activity book, an inflatable Earth ball and accompanying activity book and a children’s storybook called “Where is Spacey’s Planet?”, to take back to their school.
There will be similar CPD events held at the School of Physics and Astronomy on 8th April and 6th May with more in planning for the next academic year. If you are a primary school teacher and would like to get involved, please contact us at unawe@astro.cf.ac.uk.
