School Teaching

Astronomy classes at school are obligatory only in  Mecklenburg West-Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringa. In 2007, the federal-state government of saxony decided to abolish astronomy as a subject at school - against the protest of the population. Astronomy is an elective subject at high school though in Brandenburg. In all other federal states, astronomy is taught in the framework of clubs for pupils or other subjects, such as geography or physics.

The AVV therefore also strives to convey astronomical knowledge in schools. This had been started in high schools and secondary schools some years ago by holding astronomy lectures in the framework of the physics classes. This is accomplished either by having the school classes and their physics teachers in the lecture hhall of the observatory, or by an AVV member visiting the school and presenting an astronomy lecture there. Unfortunately, also these activities had to be suspended in February 2020, since the increasing Corona infections did not permit this anymore. In the meantime, the AVV could resume its engagement at schools again. In what follows, a breakdown of past activities at or with schools is presented.