The project “Stars in Europe” started with a rarely used telescope housed in an observatory cupola on top of a school. And with astronomy regarded as a highly complex field of black holes, dark matter or string theory, to many people this particular brand of physics, like unfortunately so many areas of natural sciences, seems complicated and unrelated to anything of practical importance. So the project developed with the two premises of “stars” and “practical work/ application” in mind. Stars stand for celestial bodies that have always been closely and intensely watched by human beings as we can see with monuments like Stonehenge, Carnac or the Nebra Sky Disk; we celebrate Easter on the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. First, stars are observable everywhere. Students can see how large the differences in the rise and setting of stars are. They can investigate the mythology of constellations, they world views that were related to the explanation of star movements, they can apply their knowledge by setting up a precise sun dial that works according to the geographical position. So this topic offers both, a practical and a cross-curricular approach to learning. Second, with the image of the nightly sky in mind and the simple tool of a smart phone with its camera and microphone in hand, we have an opportunity to check the light and noise pollution in various surroundings to make two parameters of “night” measurable. Biological, artistic and social aspects can be taken into consideration. Third, the metaphorical idea of stars as model characters: stars change over the times and they are different from culture to culture. Who are and what makes them stars- students can find out about present or former stars, they can collect and analyze biographies, find criteria and try to establish cultural patterns. All this requires a lot of communication, questioning general beliefs and relying upon each other.Our objectives are the popularization of scientific and connected thinking. Sciences (natural as much as social) are based on looking by yourself, trying to make sense of your findings and, if possible, using them to explain something and/or solve a problem by means of your findings, so the world looks a little bit different, more understandable than before. Learning is an active process. Mere studying from books and copying formulae from the black board has little to do with sciences. What we are trying to achieve in this project are students looking by themselves, comparing and talking to each other about their discoveries. This way they learn about sciences, about using a common foreign language on a purpose that has nothing to do with foreign language classes, and they learn about each other. We are a group of four schools from Siauliai/ Lithuania by the Baltic Sea, Karlsruhe/ Germany one hundred kilometers north of the Alps in central Europe, Montalbano/ Italy very much in the South of Italy by the Mediterranean and Varda/ Greece in the north-west of Greece, close to ancient Olympia. None of our students speak English as a first language, so they all meet on equal terms. The schools are different in size, organization and intellectual outlook, so we can use the different approaches to the humanities, to project-oriented work or simply to forms of teaching to learn from each other. We try to involve our students in active, cross-curricular and to some degree self-organized learning, so the schools and teachers have to adapt to these requirements as well, which also offers a welcome opportunity for school development.We expect our project to deliver star charts and a little catalogue of particularly prominent constellations like Orion or the Pleiades that have always raised particular attention and thus left a trail of explanations and usages behind over the millennia. We intend to establish various astronomical instruments in our schools: Visible ones like sun dials so there is a permanent reminder of our project on school campus; and seemingly primitive instruments like astrolabes so future generations of students can take their first steps into astronomy by relying on their own eyes.We want to raise the awareness of our students and a wider public to the significance of light and noise at night, to the significance of topography, geography and human interference. This can have an effect on future planning of lighting or noise reduction measures and in any case it raises students’, parents’ and neighbors’ awareness for their environment. Why is a night by the Baltic Sea different from one in the Black Forest or by the Mediterranean Sea? We have a hunch, but the project might offer categories to qualify this. And knowing the reasons, we can start to work at or simply accept the differences as something worthwhile. So the long term effect is about communication by having a common language and by learning about the advantages and value of differences.
The project “Stars in Europe” aims at the implementation of modern teaching methods, at the promotion of science and at inter-departmental collaboration. The project started with a rarely used telescope housed in an observatory cupola on top of a school. And with astronomy regarded as a highly complex field of black holes, dark matter or string theory, to many people this particular brand of physics, like unfortunately so many areas of natural sciences, seems complicated and unrelated to anything of practical importance. The fact that stars are represented in many pieces of art and literature and that we often refer to model characters as stars (the criteria for which differ depending on time and culture) adds another level to this topic which offers both, a practical and a cross-curricular approach to learning. So the project developed with the two premises of “stars” and “practical work/ application across the curriculm” in mind, underlining the importance of the natural sciences and its connection to many aspect of the world (in contrast to the often isolated view of many students). Our objectives were the popularization of scientific and connected thinking, starting from oberservations and discussing them. This way students learn about sciences, about using a common foreign language on a purpose that has nothing to do with foreign language classes, and they learn about each other. We are a group of four schools from Siauliai/ Lithuania, Karlsruhe/ Germany, Montalbano/ Italy and Varda/ Greece. None of our students speak English as a first language, so they all meet on equal terms. The schools are different in size, organization and intellectual outlook, so we could use the different approaches to the humanities, to project-oriented work or simply to forms of teaching to learn from each other. We involved our students in active, cross-curricular and to some degree self-organized learning, so the schools and teachers had to adapt to these requirements as well, which also offered a welcome opportunity for school development. First, students engaged in night sky observations in all four countries, they learned about constellations and the myths behind them, the atoms and molecules that make up stars and the universe and ancient and modern methods to gain knowledge about the Earth and the universe. Students applied their knowledge by establishing various astronomical instruments in our schools: Visible ones like sun dials so there is a permanent reminder of our project on school campus; and seemingly primitive instruments like astrolabes and planispehres, so future generations of students can take their first steps into astronomy by relying on their own eyes. Second, students measured the level of light pollution in all four countries by using a modern, easily accesible tool, an app on their smartphones, and compared and discussed the data. We rose the awareness of our students to the significance of light at night which can have an effect on future planning of lighting reduction measures and in any case it raises students’, parents’ and neighbors’ awareness for their environment. Third, the metaphorical idea of stars or leaders as model characters: leaders change over the times and they are different from culture to culture. Who are and what makes them leaders- students found out about present or former stars and leaders, they collected and analyzed biographies, found criteria and tried to establish cultural patterns. All this required a lot of communication and relying upon each other. Finally, students worked intensely on the representation of stars in arts, retracing myths and beliefs about starts in literary and artistic work and creating a wide range of pieces of art, showing their own creative approach to the topic, thereby connecting the seemingly isolated natural sciences with their own experiences and everyday life, deepening the understanding of science's importance. Apart from the visible results of our project, like the astronomical devices or our leadership guide that build the basis for further work in this area, this project also encouraged teachers to integrate the cross-curricular work on the natural sciences in their curriculae and to use innovative teaching methods, which many future students will profit from. However, we deem the most important long term effect to be about communication, about raising cultural awareness and about bringing Europe closer together. Through this project, every participant was able to experience the importance and advantages of the European Union and of being a European citizen, which is a value in itself.