The European Solar Telescope (EST) project is organising an international contest for secondary schools called ‘The Sun at a glance’. 14 to 16 year-old students from all over Europe are invited to create an infographic on a subject related to our star and help build the EST Solarpedia, an open educational resource about the Sun.
The European Association for Solar Telescopes (EAST) brings together a group of research institutions from 18 European countries, including the STCE represented by the Royal observatory of Belgium (ROB), which have extensive experience in the study of our Sun. The goal of EAST is to ensure that European solar astronomers have access to world-class high-resolution ground-based observing facilities and therefore promotes the development, construction and operation of a state-of-the-art European Solar Telescope in the Canaries.
Participants will have to design an infographic where the Sun is the protagonist. An infographic is a collection of images, charts, and minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic, in this case related to the Sun or solar telescopes. The two best designs will win a trip to Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) to visit Teide Observatory and the European solar telescopes in operation there! The third prize will be an H-alpha solar telescope.
The contest is open to schools in all European Union countries plus Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. It is addressed to groups of four students in the school years corresponding to the age range 14–16 y, under the guidance of a teacher. The teacher is encouraged to involve other teachers from different fields, as this is a unique opportunity to combine work in physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, art, IT, English and even history!
The teacher leading the student team must register before October 30, 2021, to participate in the contest. There is no fee to enter the contest. Teams can submit their infographics anytime after registration, with a deadline on December 20, 2021. The contest winners will be announced by January 28, 2022, through the EST website and EST social media.
Robbe Vansintjan, STCE: ‘The Sun is the only star that we can see in such detail. It is important that we learn about the solar magnetic field, solar eruptions and how we relate to our star. With this contest we want to guide students to the exciting world of solar research.’
For more information and registration, please visit https://est-east.eu/contest.
