BE-POLES: the Belgian Polar Research cluster

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BE-POLES at the flemish annual assembly of scientific teachers.

10 September 2005

The Flemish congress for sciences teachers is an initiative to inform teachers in science about the latest news and events on the science side. It aims at helping the teachers to find new tools for use in class rooms. The congress is an action organised by the teacher associations VeLeWe and VOB and is supported by the Flemish Community.

This year the congress was at its 11th version. It took place at the VUB (Vrije universiteit Brussel on Saturday 12 November 2005.

Also BE-POLES participated. During a 2 hours session (morning and afternoon), the teachers from 2nd and 3rd degree ASO were informed about Belgian research and activities to the North Pole and the South Pole trough three different presentations:

1. Louis Beyens : Wetenschap en avontuur op de toendra: de UA - scholieren/studenten expeditie in Spitsbergen.

2. Jean-Pierre Henriet: Class@poles: Stel een vraag, ontwerp een expeditie !

3. Frank Dehairs : Specifieke fysico-chemische en biologische processen bepalen het unieke karakter van de Antarctische Oceaan en zijn centrale rol als klimaatsmodulator

Be-Poles had a stand in the exhibition room.

Nearly 700 teachers took part in the congress and enthusiastically visited our stand, where they received information about the existence and aims of the BE-POLES cluster and detailed explanation about the competitions Pole-Position and Class@poles. An additional quiz "Are you ready to face the poles?" tested the knowledge of Flemish teachers about the poles.

The many positive reactions proved that this event was very fruitful for communication about polar science in Belgium. Teachers were particularly interested how to take part into the secondary school competitions about the poles.