One hundred teachers participated in the workshop "Use of simulators for teaching stars and constellations", given by Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in the tenth version of the Astronomy School for Teachers, organized by the Millennium Nucleus Titans and the Center for Astrophysics and Related Technologies (CATA). This school, held between January 27 and 28, 2022, was online and was attended by elementary and middle school teachers from different parts of the country.
The workshop given by Las Campanas Observatory dealt with the use of free online programs to teach about the life and evolution of stars, as well as their characteristics such as mass, luminosity and temperature. The session was given by Carol Rojas, astronomer and master in journalism, in charge of Communications and Outreach of Las Campanas Observatory; and Nicolás Piña, Professor of Physics and Mathematics, expert in didactics.
More information about the Astronomy School for Teachers can be found at the following website: https://escueladeprofesores.cl/programa-2022/.
Previously, LCO conducted a workshop for teachers at the First National Congress of Astronomy Education, organized by the National Coordinators of Astronomy Education in Chile (NAEC).
Las Campanas Observatory workshops were born in 2020 as a way to deepen the theoretical aspects associated with the learning objectives (LO) according to the indications of the Chilean Ministry of Education. LCO has held two cycles of free online meetings for teachers, in which it also delivered proposals to teach the contents to their students through the use of simulators, animations, experiments, etc.
The last one ended in December 2021 and had six sessions. Both were directed by Carol Rojas and Nicolás Piña, with the participation, in the first version, of astronomers and engineers from the LCO staff.