SolarLab, an educational project of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) will celebrate its first year with a visit by the prizewinners of the competition “Canarians under the same sky”.
The winning Schools are the Instituto de Educación Secundaria (Institute of Secondary Education, IES) Garoé, of the island of El Hierro, the IES San Sebastan (La Gomera) the IES Eusebio Barreto Lorenzo (La Plma) the IES Yaiza (Lanzarote) the IES Corralejo (Fuertventura) the IES Gran Canaria and the IES Ingenio (Grand Canary) and the IEs Lucas Martín Espino (Tenerife)
On the 4th and 5th of June, as a reward for their efforts, they will be visiting the main centre of the IAC in La Laguna, and then spending the rest of the day and a good fraction of the night visiting and observing at the Teide Observatory, The following day, after spending the night at the Parador Nacional (hotel) they will visit the Teide National Park, go up to the summit of Teide, then pay a visit to the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, before returning to their home islands. This will be a unique experience, from which we are sure they will gain the maximum benefit.
On Wednesday 4th June at 11.30 a.m. we invite all the communications media who may be interested to a press conference with all the prizewinners, and the representatives of all the institutionaol collaborators in the project, without whose help it would not have been possible. These include the Binter airline company, the Elder Museum of Science and Technology, The Cabildo of La Palma, the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, La Laguna, and the Canary government department of Education, the Universities, and sustainability. Within the IAC finance was provided by the "Severo Ochoa" and "SOLARNET" programmes.
Some 38,500 students between 12 and 18 years old have been able to observed during the first seven months of the project with one or other of the three telescopes involved (RA, Tonatiuh, and Helios- the names correspond to Sun gods of the three continents which surround us) which have travelled around the schools on the islands.
The success of the project has been made possible by the particiaption of 140 schoolteachers, who have given all they can to the project, and have managed to transmit their enthusiasm to the students who, thankis to this unique experience, have been able to see the Sun as it is: a dynamic and active star. And of course the Sun is, by a very large measure, the nearest star to us. As well as observing it through the telescope and the special solar filter, the students have been able to understand the true dimensions of the sun and the planets, the distances between the stars, and just how empty the Universe is. They have learned that the Sun is a very normal star, though very near which allows us to study it in detail both on the surface and in its interior, which makes it a key to our knowledge of the rest of the stars in the Universe.
For more information contact Alfred Rosenberg González (Astrophysict, popularize for UC3, and in charge of the SolarLab project):
- E-mail: alf [at] iac.es (alf[at]iac[dot]es)
- Tel: 660 574 116
