The SPACE Consortium is bringing Space education to Hungary
With the first six months of the three-year SPACE Consortium project behind us, we wanted to take a moment and reflect on the journey that is already behind us.
During the VR-Day in Amsterdam in late 2019, an interesting presentation about the SpaceBuzz Foundation on the usage of Virtual Reality for space education caught my attention. I was so inspired after this event, I contacted the SpaceBuzz organization to discuss their work. This conversation was the starting point for our participation in the SPACE Consortium, which uses space and STEM education to prepare children to become responsible citizens that actively take care of our environment. Together with Italian, French and Dutch experts and teachers we filed an Erasmus+ application to the European Union. The proposal received a good evaluation and after that the SPACE Consortium started at the end of 2020.
The project started with expert teams from the four countries in October 2020 and is currently in the midst of creating a 12-lesson programme for pupils and teacher materials, which includes a transnational version in English, and nationally adapted versions in Dutch, French, German, Hungarian and Italian. It is very exciting to work with people from different countries, cultures and educational systems on the creation of a new lesson plan.
The Hungarian team members of the consortium include some excellent professionals whom I would like to introduce.
Éva Mária Oláh:
Éva Mária Oláh is a Physics teacher at a high school and also works as research coordinator at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics. She is interested in increasing the motivation of school children in science topics. The Space Consortium project is a great opportunity to appeal to the natural interest that school children have for space exploration and astronomy. She likes that the programme also provides an environmentally-conscious education by focusing on the EU green deal and actions that children can take themselves. In her words: “Being environmentally conscious is an essential skill for the 21st century. And besides, who doesn’t want to be an astronaut, at least for a day?”.
Annamária Komáromi:
Annamária Komáromi is a Physics teacher at Balassi Bálint Eight-Year Grammar School in Budapest and also a member of the Hungarian Astronautical Society. Her PhD dissertation in 2019 was based on her educational experiences proving that properly selected complex Physical and Technological inventions related to Space Science could be applied in Physics education. She’s glad to participate in the SPACE Consortium and thinks that the “overview effect” can help children understand how to take care of our planet in the future.
Szabina Sipos:
Szabina Sipos is a teacher of English, Geography and Science. For the last 10 years of her teaching she has been involving her pupils in project-based learning and has been searching for new teaching methodologies. Szabina sees a lot of opportunities in the SPACE Consortium for Hungary: “It is a very good educational experience for pupils to learn about Space, Earth and about environmental protection. STEM takes a specialized approach to learning and development. It is about preparing pupils for the real world. If pupils understand that our home, the Earth, is so tiny and fragile, they will also understand that one of the most important things is to protect it. Giving pupils something incredible inspires them to achieve something incredible.”
Katalin Boross:
Katalin Boross is a final year medical student at the University of Szeged and wants to become a space physician. She had the opportunity to attend a two-week online course of the European Space Agency (ESA) (ESA Academy-Online Human Space Physiology Course Training 2020), during which she learned more about the depths of space physiology: “My aim is to show kids how the space environment affects the human body, what physiological changes there are and what health factors need to be considered if we want to travel into space”.
Judit Neusinger:
Though an economist, Judit Neusinger has been working as a sales and marketing manager for global companies dealing with water and wastewater treatment for more than 35 years: “I have learned a lot about environmental protection, technology, research, development and technical knowledge relating to it since it is very important to protect our planet for future generations.” While learning about the goals of the SPACE Consortium programme, she decided to support the programme’s mission and volunteer as a translator due to the programme’s focus on children and environmental protection.
Péter Rózsa:
Péter Rózsa is the leader of Szent István Elementary School’s Space Cadet Programme: “The Space Cadet Programme is designed to help children learn about the universe and recognize their talent. We help pupils to develop their skills and to ensure basic competences. ”Thanks to Szent István Elementary School’s digital classrooms the school can develop new educational programmes and focuses on both creating an environment suitable for the requirements of a new era and working with others: “To improve our STEM programmes and opportunities we wanted to collaborate with the SPACE Consortium project. This project will give us more knowledge in STEM education, and more possibilities for our pupils to explore the universe.”
Gábor Mondvai:
Gábor Mondvai graduated as an Informatics Engineer and has dealt with software development throughout his career, including sales, project and people management. He has fulfilled several managerial positions at multinational companies. “As a father of two children I am convinced about the importance of teaching and learning. I fully agree with the goals of the SPACE Consortium project, which is why I’m supporting it.
The Hungarian team believes in the SPACE Consortium educational programme, which is supported by Erasmus+, and are honoured to participate in this project. We work hard as a partner in the SPACE Consortium and we can’t wait to pilot the lesson program and teaching materials to Hungarian schools.
Written by István Zentai (Director Vizuális Torony & SPACE Consortium Partner)
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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.
