EGU GIFT2016: Introduction to the Solar System

Geosciences Information For Teachers workshop presentation by Özgür Karatekin (Royal Observatory of Belgium) at the 2016 General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union. The 2016 GIFT Workshop, http://webtv.egu.eu/gift/2016/, was titled The Solar System and Beyond. (Credit: EGU/Luca Mariani, www.lucamariani.me) The EGU Committee on Education has organised Geosciences Information For Teachers (GIFT, http://www.egu.eu/education/gift/) Workshops since 2003. These are two-and-a-half-day teacher enhancement workshops held in conjunction with EGU's annual General Assembly. There, selected top-level scientists working in the Earth Sciences offer the invited teachers talks centered on a different theme every year. The main objective of the GIFT workshops is to spread first-hand scientific information to science teachers of primary and secondary schools, significantly shortening the time between discovery and textbook, and to provide the teachers with material that can be directly transported to the classroom. In addition, the full immersion of science teachers in a truly scientific context (EGU General Assemblies) and the direct contact with world-leading geoscientists are expected to stimulate curiosity towards scientific research that the teachers then transmit to their pupils. The use of GIFT videos is allowed exclusively for educational purposes.