Mission: to the Moon

Location: Oradea Children's Town
Date: July 13, 2010

The Moon always inspired us to look to the sky. Since prehistoric times, all cultures around the world have looked to the moon, used it to measure time. What was this object change shape, disappear, and returning after each month as the queen of the night?

Was somehow the gods dwelling? Or even one day people will get to it?

This is the story of an epic journey, planned and carried through by people who are alive today: the story of Apollo missions.  The mankind have landed on the Moon 41 years ago.

1. Internal structure of the Moon
2.  The surface of the Moon
3. Mission accomplished: Apollo 11.

Comenius Course- School Robotics

Time: July 16-24, 2010
Location: Rethymno, Crete, Greece.

If you are a teacher from the EU, you may be eligible for Comenius programme. The  Comenius grant is to help cover course fees, travel to and from the country of study and subsistence costs. Contact your national agency for advice about what to do if you want to apply and to check your eligibility.
http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/doc1208_en.htm
Although you can choose any teacher refresher course, the national agencies often prioritise courses that appear in the LLP course database:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase .
I participated in July 16-24, 2010 in School Robotics, in Rethimo, Crete, Greece, a Comenius course. I received a grant from EU.

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Diseminare Curs Comenius School Robotics

View more presentations from Valentina Matei.

The Sun

Location: Children's Educational Center in Oradea
Time: July 8-th, 2010

The Sun is the closest star to Earth and is the center of our solar system. A giant, spinning ball of very hot gas, the Sun is fueled by nuclear fusion reactions. The Sun is also an active star that displays sunspots, solar flares, erupting prominences, and coronal mass ejections. These phenomena impact our near-Earth space environment and determine our "space weather."
It is the largest object and contains approximately 98% of the total solar system mass. One hundred and nine Earths would be required to fit across the Sun's disk, and its interior could hold over 1.3 million Earths.

The light from the Sun heats our world and makes life possible.
1. The Sun's structure and composition
2. Biological effects of solar radiation
3. Wolf number-workshop.

Mars, the red planet

Location: The Children's Educational Center in Oradea, Romania
Time: June 24-th, 2010

Named after the Roman god of war the Red Planet has fascinated us more than any other planet.
A virtual journey to Mars (Mars with Google Earth) gave us a new possibility of studying the Martian landscape. We saw mountains, craters, .
Is there life on Mars? We studied the interesting photographs taken by satellites and the Mars Rover, Spirit and Opportunity.
Curiosity is the name of the third rover that NASA is preparing to launch it in 2011.

Save the blue planet!

Location: Children's Educational Center in Oradea, Romania
Time: June 10, 2010
The pictures taken from ISS reveal our beatiful Earth.
Planet Earth was the subject of an exhibition of photography. The Earth is our home which offers all the elements necessary for our survival: water, air, food.
It is home to a diverse range of species and of the 6 billion people who live on the planet. Unfortunately, in recent years, man has adopted an attitude of negligence towards our planet. We have created an ecological imbalance own home, forgetting that our lives depend on how we take care and right to life of Earth.

My special invited Mrs. Anna Marossy talked about the danger of pollution in our life and other species.

Mrs. Adela Tuduce biologist at the Environmental Protection Agency talked about the International Year of Biodiversity, 2010.
Finally, we analized causes, effects and solutions for climate change.

The Earth seen from space

Location: Children's Educational Center in Oradea City, Romania
Time: April 29-th, 2010

Earth seen from space is amazing. In science classes the children learned about oceans, seas, rivers and islands.
Do you want to study mountains, craters, or volcanoes? Here are some subjects that children in Children's Education Center can learn now. Moreover, the children themselves can select places on Earth and send their requests to the ISS astronauts.


I organized an educational activity was based on volcanoes. And I even managed to evoke the interest of children when we talked about  Eyjafjallajokull active volcano from Iceland.

At the end of activity, a small chemical volcano erupted.

Astronomy Day

Location: Children's Educational Center of Oradea City, Romania
Time: April 23, 2010



One People, One Sky!

April 2010 is the Global Month of Astronomy and marks the succes of 2009-International Year of Astronomy.
I organized an educational activity in the Children's Educational Center of Oradea.




1. Multimedia presentations

• Polar Aurora
• Geomagnetic field
• Solar wind
• Earth's atmosphere
• The sky in April 2010
• Free software available for exploring the Universe
• Stellarium
• Google Earth
• 3D pictures of Sun, Moon, Mercury's tranzit, space shuttle, ISS.

2. Workshops

• Building of sundials
• Building of rotative sky maps

Yuri's Night

Location: Children's Educational Center
City: Oradea
Time: April 8, 2010
The Space Shuttle is spearhead of American space technology.

The first space shuttle was launched for testing on April 12, 1981. We watched  the story spoken by John Young, Bob Crippen and Gene Kranz. Shuttle launch footage is spectacular.

 The space shuttles are the most complex aircraft of NASA. These vehicles launched satellites and cary parts to built International Space Station.

NASA remove in 2010 from service shuttles flew. 

Courage. Intelligence. Hard-work. These words describe so well Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut. A presentation about the life of the first man in space, and a reminder of those times, followed by a launch of a missile in the courtyard of Children's Educational Center in Oradea.
5,4, 3, 2, 1 ... Lift off!