Preparing for launch!

In the past weeks, we had multiple schools across Hungary, Italy and France already starting with the pilot programme of the SPACE Consortium. We received so many nice images of children enjoying the first six lessons so far, preparing for their flight into space. And this week it’s finally time to launch! Over the next month, the SpaceBuzz will be welcoming almost 3,000 school children and their teachers in Hungary, Italy and France. The rocket will be staying one week in each of the countries, before making its way back to the final stop here in the Netherlands.

The first stop is Hungary

On 27 April, the SpaceBuzz rocket will travel the long way to the first stop of the SPACE Consortium pilot programme, Budapest. It will arrive in the Hungarian capital on 29 April and will start receiving school children the day after. The rocket will travel to three more stops in Hungary — Hernádnémeti, Hódmezővásárhely and Zánka. We are looking forward to welcome more than 800 school children in Hungary over the course of the week—more than 260 in Budapest alone!

A Hungarian class is working on the lessons.

In Lesson 4, children can design their own planet and alien!

Some classes in Hungary are teaching the English version of the programme. The class in the picture below is surely enthusiastic and created some make-shift astronaut suits… and even made their very own version of Morphy, our mascot and planet doctor, who guides the children through the lessons.

A school class in Hungary is proudly presenting the workbook.

Northern Italy will be the second stop

After traveling through Hungary for a week, the SpaceBuzz will travel to the region of South Tyrol in northern Italy, the second stop on the Erasmus+ tour. The first day there, the SpaceBuzz is welcoming some 170 children from elementary schools from Gais and Uttenheim. For the rest of the week, the rocket will be staying on the school yard of the SSP Bruneck 1 — Mittelschule Röd in Bruneck. The school is one of the partners in the SPACE Consortium. With almost 1,000 children visiting within six days, the daily programme in Italy is certainly packed!

School kids of the SSP 1 Bruneck working on Lesson 1 of the programme.

The kids are really taking their tasks seriously!

The kids are also crafting their own rockets.

The astronaut training requires a lot of focus.

Third stop Grenoble

The last stop before coming back to the Netherlands will be Grenoble and surroundings. There, the SpaceBuzz will stay in Le Pont-de-Claix most of the time, with one small trip to LA CASEMATE, the French partners of the SPACE Consortium, for an event. Over the course of one week, more than 650 school kids and their teachers will be experiencing the VR-flight.

The school kids of the Jean Jaurès school in Echirolles already had a great time with Patrick Arnaud.

The planets of the kids in Echirolles look like they are inhabitable!

After 4 weeks on tour, the SpaceBuzz will return to the Netherlands, where the pilot programme will have the final stop. Then it’s back to the drawing board for the international team to evaluate, revise and improve. But first, we will enjoy the tour through Europe to the fullest! Stay tuned for a weekly update here and on our social media.

EUROPE, HERE WE COME!

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The SPACE Consortium is a transnational collaboration of education professionals from France, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands and is co-funded by the European Union.