Opportunities for teachers at the General Assembly of the EGU

In addition to scientific research sessions, the General Assembly of the EGU offers a number of Educational Sessions entirely reserved for Elementary to High School teachers. The so- called Geophysical Information for Teachers (GIFT) Workshop will reunite 70 teachers from 17 countries worldwide and takes place from Monday April 3 at 8:30 am, to Wednesday April 5, 12:00 noon.

Presentations during the GIFT- workshop will be given by leading scientists and by experienced science educators. The organization also scheduled presentation by the teachers themselves to their fellow teachers, following the successful example from last year.

This is the 4th edition of the GIFT-workshop. After “Seismology”, “The Ocean”, “The History of the Earth” in the preceding years, the general theme of the 2006 GIFT workshop is “The Polar Regions”. This theme has been chosen in preparation of the International Polar Year 2007-2008. The International Polar Year is a major international effort to draw research and public attention to the polar regions, in particular to their role in driving global climate and in turn to the impact of climate changes on the polar regions themselves.

Dr. Carlo Laj, responsible within the EGU for the GIFT-workshops: ‘The joint effort of tens of thousands of participants from over 60 nations during the International Polar Year, needs to be made known to our school children, to make them aware of the importance of the environmental impacts of global change in these regions. The GIFT-workshop has proven to be very useful in stimulating collaborations among teachers in the different countries.
‘We think this GIFT workshop is that important, so we have scheduled a few teachers presentations even when not directly related to the polar regions.In the last part of the workshop, we have scheduled a presentation of teachers’ oriented programs and activities. We hope that teachers will take advantage of these new possibilities of bringing real time science in their classrooms!’ 

The GIFT-2007 workshop is already being prepared, for the 2007 General Assembly of the EGU, in Vienna, April 10-15. The general theme will be “Geology, Climate and Environmental problems of large Urban areas” a topic close to everyone’s everyday life. | >>programme