Remote sensing, space and geo-physics as a scientific education and outreach trigger at Ben-Gurion University

Over the past decade the Earth and Planetary Image Facility (EPIF) at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have developed extensive education and public outreach (EPO) activities related to remote sensing, space, planetary and geo-physics sciences. These programs, sponsored by the BGU community action department and EPIF, promote the development and delivery of quality learning and outreach opportunities for local community, school pupils, students and educators. EPIF's EPO agenda is that science and technology should become better known and more accessible to the global community, by so, we achieve empowerment of the local community. Thus, our activities include formal and informal education of a wide spectrum; activities are divided between daily workshops in the university and weekly courses, based on pupils' ability and the community requirements. In order to motivate the learning of scientific and technologic disciplines, we have developed an experiential educational technique, making the "Science" enjoyable and memorable. Thus for example, in order to teach the GPS system and principles, we have come up with an informal activity, a "treasure hunt" (geocaching) game that implements what is taught in the formal session. Other actions include specific student activities and supervised youth projects and experiments: the use of Earth observation and remote sensing for educational purposes: remote sensing applications; visits to and in laboratories and "mini project based learning (PBL) experiments" using state of the art research equipment. In this paper, a description of the laboratory activities and highlighted individual projects would be discussed. All activities of individuals and groups are intended to raise awareness of the benefits of geography, remote sensing and space activities.