A European Geosciences Union (EGU), a leading research organization in the fields of earth, planetary and space sciences, call for the first time this year a grant program with the aim of financing the development of didactic resources for teaching of geo-sciences in the university field. Among the 14 beneficiaries of its first call is a project of the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo (CIM-UVigo) led by the Ephyslab group researcher Juan Antonio Añel and whose objective is to disseminate how ozone measurement is carried out.
One of the objectives of the EGU and the entities associated with it all around the world is to promote research in the field of geosciences, the entity convened this program “after detecting in a survey of university teachers a strong demand for didactic resources in geosciences”, according to the organization. In response to this demand, the call made by the European Geosciences Union, called the Higher Education Teaching Grant Program, made by the European Geosciences Union is aimed at facilitating the development of didactic resources available free of charge for teachers who teach geosciences in the field of higher education. In total, the entity awarded 14 grants to initiatives spanning 16 countries on five continents “in the hope that the resources produced will be useful for the university teaching community in its response to the important educational challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.”
Material on the Schönbein method
Leading the UVigo proposal is the researcher of the Ephyslab (Environmental Physics Laboratory) group, of the CIM-UVigo, Juan Antonio Añel, with the collaboration of the UCIBIO of the New University of Lisbon (Portugal) through the postdoctoral researcher Antonio Cid. Although the economic amount of the award is small (750 euros, the maximum granted by the EGU), the professor highlights “the honor of being one of the 14 projects selected” in this program. “We are very happy. Although the economic amount is testimonial, it is a recognition of the research work on ozone and the dissemination and transfer of knowledge that we do at Ephyslab and also the work of teaching innovation that we carry out within the framework of the teaching innovation group Hypatia ”, the person in charge of the initiative comments. The call by the European Geosciences Union, he adds, “turned out to be a very competitive and very international award and we share honor with award-winning projects from very prestigious institutions such as the London School of Economics, the National Taiwan University or the North Carolina State University in the United States”.
As Juan Antonio Añel explains, they decided to present for this call because “we had a good and attractive idea” and the work already done and published. That could support the candidacy. The funded project, entitled Ozone measurement practice in the laboratory using the Schönbein method, details his manager, will allow them to make “educational video material to improve the understanding of ozone and air pollution.” Specifically, he points out, they will develop “an activity to generate educational material to learn how to measure atmospheric ozone using a very simple and cheap technique, which is a method that was historically used in the 19th century, the Schönbein method.” The contents will also cover the comparison between different ozone measurement methods and the audiovisual material that they will make will be accompanied by the corresponding explanatory documentation and will be disseminated in three languages, Galician, Spanish and English.
The project will run until April 2021. The materials resulting from each funded proposal will later be put online for free download “as part of the European Geosciences Union’s initiative to provide innovative teaching materials to geosciences university faculty around the world”.
Source: DUVI