New activities within the European project Exo4Edu

The Astronomical Observatory in Cluj hosted an educational event on Wednesday, 10 December 2025, organized within the European project “Exoplanets for Education” (2024-1-FR01-KA220-SCH-000256856) Exo4edu, funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ Programme. The activity was carried out by the Astronomical Observatory of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch, the Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy, and Babeș-Bolyai University.

The event, initiated and coordinated by Lecturer PhD Iharka Csillik, researcher at the Astronomical Observatory of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca Branch, brought together students from the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of Babeș-Bolyai University and seventh-grade pupils from a school in Sălaj County. The participants attended a presentation of the Exo4EDU application, followed by a practical simulation conducted by the university students.

The initiative made use of experiential learning methods focused on the study of exoplanets. In the first part, topics from the field of astronomy were presented in an accessible and applied manner, aiming to clarify new concepts for the pupils. Subsequently, an application dedicated to interstellar travel was used, on the basis of which 12 mixed groups were formed. Each participant selected an exoplanet from the exoplanet.eu database and, with the support of the students, estimated the time required to reach it, depending on the speed of the fastest spacecraft. The activity concluded with astronomical observations using the telescope, targeting the planet Saturn, the star Vega, and the open cluster Pleiades, thereby contributing to stimulating pupils’ interest in astronomical research.

Credit: © Observatorul Astronomic Cluj-Napoca

Published on: Dec 15, 2025