All primary schools in the Dutch province of Drenthe have received a gift from ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and Universe Awareness. We partnered with ASTRON to send each school an inflatable Earthball.

This is part of a follow-up to a cross-border outreach event between the Netherlands, Australia and South Africa that was organised on the occasion of the International SKA Forum 2010 organised by ASTRON and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in June in the Assen and Exloo area. The Earthball initiative is funded by the European Commission as part of this conference. The Earth Ball enables teachers to give workshops.

To launch the initiative, a workshop was be held at a Montessori school in Borger on Wednesday, December 1. Pupils got an opportunity to travel through the universe thanks to the inflatable planetarium of the University of Groningen that came especially for the workshop.

Teachers can use the Earth Ball in lessons about the earth and Universe, but also science, geography, and even art. Children discover their home planet, learn the about day and night, become aware of time zones and seasons. The Earth Ball comes with an activity booklet for the teachers.