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Science on Stage

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Science on Stage

When science takes centre stage

"Science on stage" teachers are far from the cliché of the boring physics teacher who can only inspire yawns from his pupils. Some present the basic principles of mechanics using a bicycle, others explain chemistry with examples from everyday life. The most audacious of them go so far as to explain the Doppler effect by means of a play in which Einstein dreams about jumping cows…

These are but a few of the activities and plays that will be shown during the EIROforum (a collaboration between CERN, ESA, ESO, EMBL, ESRF, ILL, and EFDA) Science on Stage Festival, to be held from 21 to 25 November at CERN.

This festival is dedicated to the teaching of science in order to make it more attractive. After the first edition "Physics on Stage" which was held in 2000 at CERN, the laboratory again welcomes the festival, which this year opens its doors to the teaching of all the sciences. With support from the European Commission, this international festival brings together around 500 science educators from 29 European countries.

"At the festival, teachers have the chance to view things from a new perspective, to be entertained and enchanted by science", says Rolf Landua, Head of Education at CERN and Chairman of the event. "As well as taking to the stage, they set up stalls in fair-like surroundings to share their most successful teaching tricks."

Workshops on themes as varied as "flying on stage", "the theatre of science", or "stem cell research" and "gamma-ray bursts", will give the attendees – teachers and other science educators – the chance to discuss and come up with solutions to the problem of growing disinterest for science in Europe.

At the end of the festival, the European Science Teaching Awards will be presented. The names of the winners will be made public on the Science on Stage web site on Friday 25 November. In addition, highlights of the Festival will feature in a new "Science in School" journal, to be launched by EIROforum in 2006. The new journal is dedicated to best teaching materials and practices in Europe.

The festival is the final event of a two-year-long programme of events that has taken place in virtually every European country and from which delegates have been selected for their outstanding projects promoting science.

November 2005