The selection of the 10 Greek teachers who will take part in the Playing with Protons course at CERN (https://playprotons.web.cern.ch/) has been completed. Both the quality and the number of applications (nearly 400) exceeded all expectations and made the entire task very challenging.
The 10 teachers (and their schools) who will make up this year's Playing with Protons Greek team are:
Sotirios Georgiou, 5th Primary School of Florina
Panagiotis Kanychis, 4th Primary School of Agios Ioannis Rentis
Athanasios Karakostas, 35th Primary School of Peristeri
Angeliki Karkalou, Primary School of Kythera
Anastasia Kourti, Primary School of Nydri, Lefkada
Fotini Lisgara, 9th Primary School of Arta
Maria Barouta, Kanalion Primary School, Corfu
Katerina Douma, Primary School of Aegiali-Tholaria, Amorgos
Marina Stavrou, 8th Primary School of Megara
Vasiliki Tsirogianni, 4th Primary School of Petroupoli "Ioannis Kapodistrias"
The 10 teachers were chosen from a group of 20 finalists who made it to the last round of the selection process with online interviews with the programme committee. Central to the final selection was the application of certain criteria, such as geographical distribution and type of school (urban, provincial, remote, etc.), teachers’ particular interests and their role in supporting the aims and needs of the entire initiative.
There is no doubt that competition has been rather strong. Yet, all teachers who have expressed an interest in the project and submitted applications are considered members of the Playing with Protons family and will have a role in future activities of the project.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Summer School at CERN is postponed to a later date either this or next year. However, the program will proceed with the immediate planning of a series of local and international activities (webinars, virtual visits, etc.) with the support of the European initiatives REINFORCE (https://reinforceeu.eu/) and FRONTIERS (http://frontiers-project.eu/).
Visit the Playing with Protons online community in OSOS for lesson plans, content, ideas, etc.: https://portal.opendiscoveryspace.eu/en/community/playing-protons-greece-845642
Playing with Protons is CERN’s first systematic effort to provide state-of-the-art professional development for primary school teachers in order to support them empower and have students engage effectively with cutting-edge physics, scientific discoveries and technological innovation.
