WELCOME

Dear teachers,

Welcome to the 2019 edition of the Insegnaci Etna School!

As you know, this school gathers a number of schools from eastern Sicily, an extraordinary area, obviously one of the most fantastic in Europe, for teaching many aspect of the geosciences directly in the field. And not only about the Etna volcano, but also about earthquakes, tsunami, meteorology,
geo-environment, and the relations that exist between all these elements (and hazards) with the people who are living in that area.

We are very happy about the renewed and increasing presence of EduMed, a newly created Observatory (University Côte d’Azur) at Nice, in France. This new Observatory, and its European partners, have largely widened the field of their didactic activity to all aspects of the geosciences (and geo-hazards) in the Mediterranean, now not limited to earthquakes. Etna is, of course, a perfect candidate to bring European teachers and their classes in direct contact with various aspects of geosciences well beyond the seismology-only classes.

Also, thanks to a financial help of the European Geoscience Union (EGU), it has been possible this year to invite 6 teachers from Albania, France, Greece, Portugal and the United Kingdom to participate to this school. We hope that this first step will favour exchanges among teachers (from intermediate and high schools) from all Europe, and their will to continue beyond this School with exchanges of students and classes. In this exchange the schools (intermediate and high schools) of the Etna region are playing a key role because these connexions are taking place and growing within their premises, on the slopes of Etna. We believe that this is an extraordinary opportunity for both the Sicilian and  European teachers.

During the first day of the school, you will have several presentations by well known scientists on different aspects of the Etna: its eruptions, the way to survey its volcanic activity and also its vegetation, all different aspects of the « life » of the volcano.

In the second day, you will have the opportunity to follow three different « Classrooms activities » on earthquakes, with the « Sismobox », on measuring the optical density of the atmosphere, particularly around the Etna, with the Calitoo photometer, and also the Seismo data analysis. This last activity will also stage the students from the IISS Benedetto Radice who have exploited the data collected by the pedagogical seismographs around the Etna. Pupils from Acireale and Riposto will also present their activity.

These « classroom activities » will continue on the third day, with the presentation of the « Hydrologic warehouse », followed by a « Satellite warehouse » a series of presentation of the utilisation of didactic programs distributed by the European Space Agency (ESA).

The beauty and the power of the Etna volcano have fascinated not only scientists, but also poets and historian. It is not surprising that myths and legends have been numerous around the Etna. And it is, therefore, also natural that the last presentation on the third day will deal with this aspect.
In the afternoon of Saturday we’ll visit a farm of pistachios, a fruit which has made Bronte famous, not only in Sicily, not only in Italy, but worldwide!
And the day will end with a presentation of the excursion for Sunday, by the leaders of this excursion.

And Sunday we will enjoy all the different aspects of the excursion!

It will then be the time for a Goodbye! and Arrivederci all’anno prossimo !, sempre più numerosi !

The Organizing Committee of Insegnaci Etna 2019