GasTerra and University of Groningen teaching together
The Your Energy of Tomorrow truck, otherwise known as the RUG Discovery, has been a household name in the teaching of natural sciences and technology in Dutch pre-university schools for almost ten years. The truck is set to stay on the road for the next three years, thanks to continued collaboration between the University of Groningen and GasTerra.
Too little attention for energy in schools
GasTerra has sponsored the truck for the last three years. Visits to schools revolve around the theme ‘energy’. The team from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Groningen make the visits interesting by helping schoolchildren to conduct various experiments, such as generating energy from sunlight or vibrations.
‘Many future energy scenarios will take a long time to materialize. It will be up to the schoolchildren of today to make them happen. The average pupil knows very little about energy, which makes it all the more important to carry on with our mission’, according to GasTerra.
Nerve centre
The truck’s success in the schools is another good reason for continuing. ‘The truck is a great way to reacquaint children with natural science. It’s like a nerve centre for natural science, with its experiments, experiences, measuring, getting it wrong and trying again. It provides the perfect opportunity to see natural science in all its glory’, says a physics teacher from a Frisian secondary school.
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‘What’s more, the truck has always been a valuable step in the process of choosing a degree programme,’ says Peter van Haastert, Vice Dean for Education at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Groningen. ‘We start by taking the truck to the children in schools, and then the children come to visit Science LinX, the Faculty’s interactive science centre. It’s a great way to stay in close touch with pupils and schools. This is the Faculty rolling out the red carpet’.| Last modified: | 17 September 2021 11.20 a.m. |
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