Odysseus - a space competition for schools
Are you interested in space exploration? Do you live in a country within the European Union? Are you aged 14-18? Then you are just the person to enjoy taking part in an exciting national and international competition, known as Odysseus.
As a member of a school team you will have the opportunity to develop a project on space exploration and to demonstrate knowledge learned in the classroom, whilst introducing your own creativity, intelligence and innovation.
Students who want to participate must form a team of 2 to 5 members and have one teacher as a coach / adviser. They must prepare and submit a project in one of these categories:
- Solar System (Sun, planets, dwarf planets, moons, comets, asteroids, rings, dust etc).
- Spaceship – global cooperation (related to an actual or potential space mission).
- Co-evolution of life (living in space or life beyond Earth).
Projects may take the form of an experiment, a video, a written presentation, etc. Entries can be in any major European language, but teams that advance to the final round will have to submit a summary of their project in English.
Entries
Each entry must be digital and include a summary in the format provided by the organizers and describing the thinking behind the project. All entries will be assessed and scored on scientific knowledge, practical implementation and creativity.
The contest is open for submissions until 15 January 2013. The entries will first be assessed in national semi-finals, when a panel of judges will look at the entries from their particular country. The best entry in each of the three categories for each country will be nominated to progress to the European final, and the winners will be invited to the award ceremony, which will be held at SpaceExpo in the Netherlands After the closing date for entries, the participating teams will also give their votes for the best project. The entry with the largest number of votes will attend the grand final, alongside the teams selected by the judges.
To find out more about the contest rules and entry requirements, please visit the Odysseus website. Information related to the competition’s three themes can also be found in the library section on this website.
Background
Odysseus is a European project, co-funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme. The contest has been organised by Signosis of Belgium, Ellinogermaniki Agogi of Greece, The European Physical Society and SpaceExpo of the Netherlands.
