Exploring Solar Activity Through Classroom Exercises Using Recent Sun Data
TalkAstronomy Education in Schools in Practice (Secondary Schools)
7th Shaw-IAU Workshop
Tuesday Nov. 18, 2025
UTC: 5:50 p.m. - 6 p.m. America/New_York: 12:50 p.m.- 1 p.m.
Friday Nov. 21, 2025
UTC: 12:50 p.m. - 1 p.m. America/New_York: 7:50 a.m.- 8 a.m.
Dunja Fabjan (University of Ljubljana and Zavod Cosmolab)
The Sun and its activity were selected as key themes this year. I developed four classroom exercises for middle and high school students focusing on sunspots, solar rotation velocity, and Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) speeds. These activities use the JHelioviewer visualization software and are based on the analysis of recent solar data.
The exercises were implemented in three middle school classes and complemented with outdoor solar-related activities. In this talk, I will discuss the strengths and limitations of these exercises and the qualitative feedback from students and teachers.
A scientific paper describing the activities is currently in preparation.
About Dunja Fabjan
Dunja Fabjan is an astrophysicist working at University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. As Slovenian NAEC she was involved in the STEAM Med project and is now collaborating in the SABIR project, both led by OAE center Italy. As co-founder of Zavod Cosmolab, she actively promotes astronomy in schools and collaborates in different science outreach initiatives.
