Marie-Eve Naud

Co-author: Julie Bolduc-Duval, Nathalie Ouellette, Frédérique Baron, Heidi White
Astrophysicists, science educators and teachers collaborated to create a wealth of educational resources presented in Des exoplanètes à l’école (Exoplanets in the Classroom). Activities, slide decks, short videos, biographies of Québécois and Canadian astrophysicists, an FAQ, a glossary, play cards and more, are all available for free on our website: http://www.exoplanetesalecole.ca (French only at the moment). They can be used by primary and secondary school teachers and kids to learn more about exoplanets and the search for life in the Universe. During this talk, I’ll present the resources and how they were developed, in a process led by astrophysicists and science educators at the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Université de Montréal, in close collaboration with Discover the Universe and other educational partners, with funding from the Québec provincial government. More than a hundred teachers in Québec have been involved from the start of the project in 2021 up to the publication of the resources in March 2023. They participated in brainstorming sessions, helped test the resources in their classrooms, and were consulted on many occasions to ensure the resources were adapted to their realities and needs. The reaction of the teachers is extremely positive : they told us the resources are easy to adopt and adapt, have significant connections with the Quebec school curriculum they must teach, and provide a novel way for them and their students to review mandatory topics and learn more about cutting-edge actual research topics and the scientists who make them.