Education Programme

Bringing Science & Astronomy to you

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Astronomy Ireland's Education Officers travel around Ireland giving talks on astronomy as part of our new Education Programme. This programme has gained great success to date.

The Programme is aimed towards groups in the general public, such as schools (primary and secondary), social clubs, youth clubs, community meetings and any other group that would be interested in learning more about astronomy. Astronomy is a very accessible hobby and science and plays a very important and fundamental part in our lives. The aim of this Initiative is to promote astronomy and science and to help build a science culture for Ireland.

This exciting project involves a talk given to your group lasting approximately 40 mins with time for a question and answer session at the end. The talk can be tailored to suit your needs using the following criteria:

Age group
Subject knowledge
Level of interest

The Education Officer will be contactable prior to the talk itself to discuss topics and areas of particular interest, and to address comments and queries you might have. The Officer will be able to forward you relevant information about the talk so you can give your group an overview of what will be involved. The talk itself will cover topics such as planets and their moons, comets and other Solar System objects, and our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Depending on interest, talks can include the history of astronomy, astrophotography, planets around other stars and black holes. Following the talk, attendees are invited to ask questions about the topics covered, and, indeed, on any topic of astronomy.

For schools, our Officers can facilitate two talks to cater for the school timetable. This can be divided into different age groups, for example.

Advantages of this Initiative

Fun and educational
People of all ages are fascinated by planets, stars and comets - this is an opportunity to understand them
Astronomy is part of everyone's everyday life, whether they recognise this or not
The Initiative adds to peoples' knowledge of science and nature
Hosting an astronomy talk can help your primary school receive an Award of Science & Maths Excellence 2011

The talks that Astronomy Ireland provides act as an accessible gateway to science for young children. By showing them some of the science behind the stars and planets we hope to inspire a life-long interest in astronomy and science in Irish children.

Further Information

Download a PDF version of our Education Programme leaflet HERE (3.6MB).

For further information on the talk, pricing structure and to submit a booking for your group, please contact us HERE

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