Thank you Tim for a great in-flight call!
On Thursday April 14, teachers from the UK, Poland, and Norway, had the opportunity to talk live with ESA Astronaut Tim Peake, who is currently living and working on the International Space Station (ISS).
Hundreds of primary and secondary school teachers and students, as well as space scientists and engineers, gathered at national events in York, Warsaw, and Oslo to participate in the call with Tim – the opportunity of a lifetime. Several teachers had the opportunity to ask questions surrounding the theme: how to encourage students in the classroom to pursue a STEM career.
“To experience the IFC with Tim Peake was beyond fascinating and inspirational. It also motivates me to let my students experience this fascination, and show them that by heaving the willpower, dreams and dedication, only your imagination can limit your achievements.” - Kristin B. Grimstad, Norwegian Student Teacher.
“I am very much impressed by the event organised for the inflight call with Tim Peake. Wholehearted congratulations! Three times –bravo! Great job! Many thanks for giving us an opportunity to participate. Our students were amazed, and that’s even more important than my [teacher’s] opinion.” said Tymon Kretschmer, Polish teacher.
“Tim is a fantastic ambassador for education. The videos he puts out makes it very real for the children and seeing him on the ISS has been incredible. I have a girl in my class who has decided she now wants to be a space engineer.” – Gareth Dyer, British Teacher.
In particular, Tim answered the following questions:
- Which skills or experiences have unexpectedly proven most useful to you in space? (Tom Holloway, Hillcroft Primary School)
- What training have you received to support the development of your creative thinking and problem solving skills? (Karen Hammond, Mellor Primary)
- Is the career of an astronaut your passion? What other passions do you have? (Radosław Siembor, Primary School no 94)
- Which results from an experiment on the ISS have proven to be the most surprising to you and what type of skills do you use when conducting this experiment? (Wanda Cacha, Sopockie Autonomiczne Gimnazjum)
- Can you remember the first time you noticed that you had an interest in space and how did this have an influence on your career? (Wenche Hjemaas Svindal, Bjørkelangen School Oslo)
- If you had the opportunity to start your education again, would you have done anything differently? Why or why not? (Simen Bergvik, Andenes School)
Watch the recording of the live-streamed inflight call here.
About the events
The events in each country were coordinated by the European Space Education Resource Offices (ESERO): ESERO UK, ESERO Poland, and Nordic ESERO (the latter covering Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland):
- UK event:National STEM Centre,York
- Poland event: Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw
- Norway event:Teknisk Museum,Oslo
In addition to the inflight call, the national events featured a range of activities including talks from experts, networking, and interactive activities for the teachers throughout the day.
ESERO Ireland also organised a dedicated teacher event in Limerick around this occasion and participated in the call remotely.
Background
The inflight call with Tim Peake is part of a vast range of educational activities delivered by the ESA ESERO project. There are currently 10 operational ESERO Offices across Europe, covering 13 ESA Member States.
Together with ESA and national space agencies, ESERO Offices develop, use, and disseminate classroom resources -all tailored to the national curricula- which make use of space to make teaching and learning of STEM subjects more appealing and effective. In addition, they offer a series of training workshops and conferences for both primary and secondary school teachers, and support hands-on activities in the country. Through their activities, ESERO’s highlight the importance of space for society and raise awareness about STEM career prospects.
