For the third consecutive year, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation chose to make a difference in Greek science education supporting the CERN & Society Foundation and CERN’s Greek Teacher Programme. Thanks to the Latsis Foundation's grant, 37 science high-school teachers had the opportunity to come to CERN during summer to attend an intensive 4-day training, including lectures and workshops on how teachers can make science subjects more exciting for their students and engage more with scientific studies and careers. 

The teachers came to CERN in two groups end of August. Through a series of specially curated lectures, hands-on activities and dedicated sessions, the Programme covered the latest developments in a wide range of scientific fields and also introduced the teachers to technologies they can use for class experiments. Under the guidance of CERN experts, the teachers also learned how to build and perform scientific experiments for their classes using simple, everyday material.

The teachers left inspired, feeling more confident as educators and motivated to share this experience with their students through a variety of outreach activities.

The experience was unforgettable! Being at a place where such important achievements happen, creates a sense of awe! The seminar schedule was very well-programmed and the lecturers were excellent, each in their own area of expertise.

I learned about concepts I used to know only in theory, but I had never seen in practice. It has helped me a lot gaining hands-on lab experience.

The Greek Teacher Programme is part of the CERN’s National Teacher Programmes, a series of courses offered on-site at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, in the context of CERN’s overall education efforts to promote the teaching of modern physics and increase knowledge exchange between teachers and scientists. Since the programmes began in 1998, CERN has trained over 11,500 high-school teachers from around the world in modern physics, organising around 30-35 courses annually.