Greetings, fellow astrophiles!
The following first came across my inbox courtesy of George Normandin of Kopernik Astronomical Society – the 2016 installment of the Catch A Star Contest for student writing. Details are provided below. With school in session (perhaps to get the keen eye of one’s English teacher) and the weather currently no good for observing (although you have some lead time!), now’s a great time to get a young observer writing early and writing often.
The goal of the European Astronomy Contest Catch a Star is to stimulate the creativity and independent work of students from European secondary schools, to strengthen and expand their astronomical knowledge and skills, and to help the spread of information technologies in the educational process.
Catch a Star is a contest that has been held as a result of the collaboration between the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) and European Southern Observatory (ESO).
The idea of the Catch a Star program is to encourage students to work together, to learn about astronomy and discover things for themselves by researching information on an astronomical object.
* * * School students around the world are invited to take part in the 2016 Catch a Star astronomy writing contest.
To participate, students should submit a written report on an astronomical topic of their choice — for example, an astronomical object, phenomenon, observation, scientific problem or theory. Reports must be written in English and be no more than 5000 words in length. They may be undertaken by groups of up to three students, plus a group leader who is not a student.
Each submission must be emailed as a PDF file to astro.edu@gmail.com. The deadline for all entries is 30 November 2016.
The five winners will each receive a mounted image of a fascinating astronomical object, courtesy of ESO. In addition, each winner will also have the chance to carry out remote observations at the National Astronomical Observatory “Rozhen”, Bulgaria, or to hold a video conference with a professional astronomer.
Catch a Star is organised jointly by the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) and ESO. Its aim is to encourage creativity and independent work amongst students, and to strengthen and expand their astronomical knowledge and skills.
Find out more about the competition on the Catch a Star website.
Links
* Catch a Star 2016 – www.eaae-astronomy.org/catchastar/
* How to participate – www.eaae-astronomy.org/catchastar/participate-menu
* Catch a Star 2015 winners – www.eaae-astronomy.org/catchastar/winners-menuContacts
Oana Sandu
Community Coordinator & Strategy Officer
ESO education and Public Outreach Department
Tel: +49 89 320 069 65
Email: osandu@partner.eso.org