CEFCA and Teruel Provincial Council invite 3,000 schoolchildren from the province to discover Galactica

2025-01-20 12:00
CEFCA and Teruel Provincial Council invite 3,000 schoolchildren from the province to discover Galactica

CEFCA and Teruel Provincial Council invite 3,000 schoolchildren from the province to discover Galactica

A collaboration between the two institutions will facilitate entry to schools in Teruel, which will enjoy a guided tour and a complementary workshop. Nine of the most important astrophysicists in history or a journey through the Solar System, star formation, galaxies and the Big Bang await them. Galactica, the first park in Europe to explain and observe the Cosmos, opens its doors to schools in the province of Teruel. A collaboration between the Centro de Estucios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA) and the Diputación de Teruel will allow 3,000 schoolchildren to visit Galáctica free of charge this academic year.

How can a school participate?

The provincial institution has informed all schools in the province of the initiative through a letter detailing that the initiative is aimed at both primary and secondary students, and that each school will have a maximum of 150 places. The tickets purchased by the provincial institution amount to 3,000, and will be distributed according to the registration of each school's application, while stocks last.

The educational centres can already send their applications to the Diputación de Teruel through a general electronic application form, with the information requested in the informative letter sent to the centres, in which it is detailed that the enjoyment of these passes granted by the Diputación de Teruel will not be cumulative to other agreements. The amount is 30,000 euros from the Tourism Department of the provincial institution.

The schools participating in this proposal will be able to enjoy a 1.5 hour guided tour of Galactica as well as a complementary workshop. They can choose, for example, to build a ‘star counter’, or discover them through film, travel through the craters of the moon or attend the birth of a star. These are some of the proposals of the workshops, which also allow older children to measure cosmic distances, as if they were astrophysicists, or even to search for a planet beyond Neptune.

The DPT's campaign also includes passes for the teachers accompanying the pupils, but each school will be responsible for hiring and paying the travel costs. Schools will be able to choose the dates of their visits from Wednesday to Friday, throughout 2025.

For the director of CEFCA, Javier Cenarro, the collaboration develops the didactic objective that is at the origin of Galáctica: ‘From its conception, the museography of Galáctica is designed for the youngest, for schools, for different educational levels. The contents even have different cognitive levels so that a child of ten can take advantage of it, and a young person of 18 as well. This is one of Galáctica's main objectives. And with this collaboration with the Provincial Council of Teruel, we are making it as easy as possible for the schoolchildren of Teruel to visit Galactica, to learn about astronomy and to have a complementary education to that which can be given in the classroom’. Cenarro highlighted the scientific and pedagogical ‘rigour’ of a ‘unique resource in Europe’, where universities and schools are also strategic in bringing the centre to life.

A universe of knowledge

Nine of the most important astrophysicists in history and the Big Bang await the schoolchildren of Teruel at Galáctica. It is the first park in Europe to explain the Cosmos and, in addition, to observe it. Promoted by the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Galáctica has 1,560 m2 divided into a network of nine domes, control rooms, a museum and a large conference room.

The five museum areas allow visitors to learn about the scientific projects being carried out at the Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory (Teruel), discover the profession of astrophysicist, or learn about the problems of space debris and, above all, basic concepts of astrophysics: to understand how the Solar System works, star formation, galaxies, the Big Bang, the expansion of the Universe or exoplanets. Students have access to semi-professional telescopes. The Centre opened its doors just a year and a half ago and aspires to become a reference centre for discovering the Universe.