Activities for Schools
Pupil Internships
Pupils are the university students of tomorrow. Besides contributions to public relation events, the Argelander-Institute (AIfA) aims to offer research-focused internships to pupils.
Per year, up to 6-8 internships (for up to 3 weeks) can be offered to pupils in year 9 and above, with a keen interest in astronomical research. Typically internships are held before the school holidays in January/February and June/July.
In order to enable internships and to support pupil supervision, early in 2024 the AIfA started to collaborate with other on-campus institutions, such as project PUNCH4NFDI Netzwerk Teilchenwelt (NTW), Max-Plank-Institut für Radioastronomie, who also offer pupil internships and help to broadening the insights gained by interns.
Teacher Training
The Argelander Institute invites teachers interested in teaching astronomy to its annual teacher training (1/2 to 1 day event). Students and other interested individuals are also welcome. Participation is free, but registration is required.
Those interested in receiving announcements about future teacher trainings and other school-related events can join the mailinglist eintragen.
The institute also highlights broader events organized by the German ESERO Center, to which it contributes.
The program of previous teacher trainings can be found here: 2024, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, previous events.
School Visits
The program "Astronomie vor Ort" (Astronomy on Site), which includes school visits, has been taken over by the Volkssternwarte Bonn. For more information, please visit the Volkssternwarte's official website: http://www.volkssternwarte-bonn.de/wordpress/avo/
If you are interested in visiting the Argelander-Institut with a school group, please feel free to get in touch.
Science Communication
Together with the Volkssternwarte Bonn, the Argelander-Institute offers a wide range of events designed specifically for the public. Additionally, Bonn astronomers participate in university events such as the youth university, science ralley and science night. More information on the events can be found on the website of the Volkssternwarte Bonn.
A particular focus is to make the AIfA's collection of historical sky images, with around 15,000 photographs of the night sky, accessible to the public through guided tours and lectures.
This website has been translated from German into English in part with ChatGPT 4.0 , OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. The translation draft has been reviewed and edited by the webmaster (further information see imprint).