Asteroids. Meteors and Meteorites

November 25, 2010
The Children's Educational Center of Oradea, Romania

Situated on the border between the terrestrial and giant planets, asteroids are very important objects because it keeps the date entered our solar system formation, 4.56 billion years ago and his subsequent history.
But what happens when after a collision, or the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies, asteroids change its trajectory?
How did dinosaurs exctinct? How was created Meteor Crater from Arizona?
How can we determine the density?
Have the Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos the same shapes with our Moon?
What are the meteors? It is a rain of stars?
The students found answers to all these questions during this activity.

Windows to the Universe

Time: November 11, 2010

The Children's Educational Center in Oradea, Romania

The Universe is fascinating, Hubble Space Telescope shows spectacular and mysterious depths of the cosmos.

A night sky full of stars and galaxies. We watched the summer triangle Vega, Altair and Deneb.
We participated in Great World Wide Star Count and the magnitude from our location was 3, as the visibility of stars in Cygnus constellation .
The children were delighted by the image of the Moon, the craters, the terminator. Even Jupiter was visible. And that night was really special because before 7 pm time the International Space Station has appeared rushed on the starry sky.

 

 

Journey through our Solar System

Location: Children's Educational Center in Oradea, Romania
Oct. 8-th, 2010


The little "astronauts" from Astronomy and Space Science Club of Oradea, were eager to participate in a space adventure: a journey through the planets and their satellites, during World Space Week.

After a relatively short journey to the Moon, followed by a lunar landing, the crew built a lunar basis, equipped with all necessary elements for human survival in this environment.

Two other teams have traveled to the red planet. Once the rovers arrived on Mars, participated in a competitive race. The laws of physics are the same on Mars: rovers propelled of air-filled balloons.
Finally, participants admired the spectacular images of the amazing Saturn, taken from Cassini spacecraft. They discovered some of the mysteries of the cosmos, with an unforgettable journey through our solar system.

Robots in space

Location: Dacia School Oradea, Romania
Oct. 8-th, 2010.

Robots in space

The outer space is fascinating, but the work and lives of the astronauts in this environment is not easy. Spatial robots are used to facilitate or even replace human work in space. Whether we talk about humanoid robots, autonomous and mobile explorers, all robots are built and programmed to perform a specific task.
Since the first spatial robot  (Sojourner, Robonaut), geologists robots exploring Mars (Spirit and Opportunity) to the robotic Canadarm2 on the International Space Station, which provides a work platform for astronauts, successfully meet all these different robots missions.

Journey through the Stars

Location: Children's Educational Center in Oradea, Romania

Time: September 2-nd, 2010

 
A journey through the stars with a spacecraft which travels with light speed led us into a dream outer space, but still real.
 
We admired stars, galaxies, and we just reached the edge of the known Universe. Here we saw quasars.
We returned safe to Earth and we admired the International Space Station which quickly passed over the night sky.

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.