On 2 August 2017, secondary school teachers gathered in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria for a one-day workshop organized by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nigeria in collaboration with the EU Space Awareness project.

During the 3.5-hours workshop, participants learned more about the Space Awareness project, how to use the inquiry based approach to teach subjects using some Space Awareness activities, and how to apply some of the activities associated with “Our Wonderful Universe” topic.

Introduction to space sciences was followed by the presentation of Space Awareness activities under the topic “Our Wonderful Universe”:

- What is time? activity allows students to have a better understanding of time and the instruments that can be used to measure it.

- Know your planets activity is a card game where students play and learn the properties of different planets and their relative position in the Solar System.

- Sun, Earth and Moon model activity allows students to build a model of the Sun-Earth-Moon system, exploring how the Moon revolves around  Earth, and the Earth around the Sun.

- History of the Universe resource guides teachers together with their students along a timeline of the Universe where they will discover the relative ages of the UIniverse, the Solar System and the appearance of humans, on the scale of a year.

Teachers were trained on how to use these activities in order to improve the teaching in STEM subjects.

The training also aimed to prepare teachers for entering into national and international competition which are related to the educational activities initiated by the Space Awareness project.

For more educational activities and workshops in Nigeria, please check announcements on the Facebook page of the EU Space Awareness Nigerian Node.