Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Curricula of the German Gymnasium

Extract

The school system in the Federal Republic of Germany is generally of the classical European type as defined by D. Wentzel in his paper for this colloquium. Children enter school at age 6. After 4 years of primary school they enter secondary schools. The gymnasium type lasts for 9 or 7 years, depending on the state. The final exam (Abitur) entitles the students to go to university.

The interest of pupils in learning about astronomy is generally very high. But the usual science or physics teacher’s education in most of our federal states does not include any thorough knowledge of astronomy; physics curricula are overcrowded with traditional matter and more and more modern technical applications, without reducing the time allotted to old topics. Practically speaking, there are very few lessons left that might be used for astronomy teaching.