Exoplanets in the Classroom - Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets

★ All resources are now available in English on www.exoplanetsintheclassroom.ca
and in French at www.exoplanetesalecole.ca ★

The Exoplanets in the Classroom project aims to create educational resources for elementary and secondary school staff, first in Quebec, and then for the rest of the French-speaking and English speaking world, on exoplanets and the search for life elsewhere in the Universe, topics in which Trottier Institute for Research on exoplanets (IREx) researchers are world leaders.

WHEN? The initial development of these resources was completed over two years, from 2021 to 2023. The translation took place between 2024 and 2025. The resources website www.exoplanetsintheclassroom.ca (and its French counterpart www.exoplanetealecole.ca) is now available with many resources.

WHO? The project is led by the Trottier Institute for Research on exoplanets within the Faculté des arts et des sciences of the Université de Montréal in collaboration with several partners. The initial creation of resources was funded by the NovaScience program of the ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie.

Astrophysicists Marie-Eve Naud, Nathalie Ouellette, Frédérique Baron, Heidi White and Érika Le Bourdais from IREx; Julie Bolduc-Duval and Lindsay Mann, respectively Director and Communications Coordinator for the Discover the Universe program; as well as Marie-Claude Nicole and Gabrielle B. Durand from École en réseau, contributed greatly to this project, in collaboration with more than one hundred school personnel from across Quebec.

WHY? Thanks to this project, the school community will be well equipped to introduce cutting-edge subjects to Quebec (and the world!) youth, encouraging their natural curiosity for big questions such as: “Are we alone in the Universe? and “Is the Earth unique?”. By exploring these particularly exciting questions in a dynamic and accessible way, our aim is to stimulate the interest of school staff and students in astronomy and science in general. The resources we are creating are rooted in the Quebec school curriculum, and helps to deepen learning and to connect young people to Quebec scientists.

Project progress

May-June 2025: Julie, Lindsay and Marie-Eve completed the overall revision of the resources in French and English
2024-2025: Julie, Lindsay and Marie-Eve completed the translation in English
Summer 2024: Presentation of the project at CASCA 2024 by Heidi and IAUS 393 by Marie-Eve
May 2023: Presentation of the project by Marie-Eve at AstroEDU 2023 in Toronto.
Starting in the Spring of 2023: Translation of a portion of the resources into English by Heidi and some of our interns.
Winter 2023: Major campaign to promote the resources. The website is online since October 17th!
Fall 2022 and winter 2023: Marie-Eve and Julie are hosting a Community of Practice on exoplanets with Gabrielle at École en réseau.
Fall 2022: Marie-Eve and Julie met with teachers and other school personnel at the Aestq (October 20-21) and AQEP (November 24-25) conferences.
Summer-Fall 2022: the design of the French website that hosts all the resources by Lindsay and Marie-Eve.
Summer-Fall 2022: the design of a new series of video vignettes called “Des exoplanètes et nous“ (Exoplanets and Us), led by Érika and Marie-Eve. Three videos were created: History of exoplanets, Your favourite exoplanet and Is there life elsewhere?.
Summer-Fall 2022: the development of one new Exobite video, led by Nathalie and Érika, to be added in the Fall to the already published ExoBites series, used for elementary and secondary school.
Summer 2022: the organisation by Julie and Marie-Eve of a third series of co-creation workshops, to work specifically on the materials developed for the high school level.
Spring 2022: the design of four short and simple activities for the high school kit by Julie and Marie-Eve better suited to the reality of school personnel, as formulated during the second series of co-creation workshops.
Winter-Spring 2022: the testing of three of the other activities of the elementary school kit led by Marie-Eve and Julie, with dozens of classes in Quebec through three events presented by Gabrielle from École en réseau.
Winter 2022: the large-scale deployment of our first activity of the elementary school kit thanks to at Discover the Universe by Marie-Eve, Julie and Lindsay.
Fall 2021: the organisation of a second series of co-creation workshops led by Marie-Eve and Julie with a dozen elementary and secondary school teachers to continue the creation of the activities.
Summer 2021: the writing of the first draft of activities for elementary and secondary schools, by Frédérique and Marie-Eve, and the elaboration of the visual identity by Lindsay.
Spring 2021: the organisation of a first series of co-creation workshops by the team with about 30 school staff members (elementary and secondary teachers, pedagogical advisors), to better understand the needs and expectations of the community.
Spring 2021: the creation of a teacher community on Facebook by Marie-Eve, where we are discussing several aspects of the project with school staff members.
Spring 2021: announcement of the beginning of the project on the IREx website.

Give us your feedback on resources!

If you are a member of the school staff (elementary and secondary teachers, pedagogical advisors, guidance counsellors, TTPs, etc.) in Quebec, it is still possible to get involved in this project!

There are many ways to get involved, such as testing an activity in your classroom, joining our community on Facebook to participate in discussions, or simply talking about our project with your colleagues.

Please tell us what you think about the resources! This means a lot to us! Write at marie-eve.naud@umontreal.ca.

About the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets

The Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, or IREx, created in 2014, brings together a team of more than 60 professors, researchers and students from four Quebec universities and the Montreal Planetarium, working on the study of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the Sun. The Institute is also actively involved in science education and outreach, organising and participating in numerous initiatives aimed at various audiences.

About our partners

The Exoplanets in the Classroom project is led by the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets in the Faculté des arts et des sciences of the Université de Montréal, and involves several partners:

Discover the Universe is an astronomy training program offered by Canadian astronomers. Their goal is to help teachers and educators share this fascinating science with their groups.
École en réseau contributes to the academic success of thousands of children and teens and the professional development of hundreds of teachers through inter-class collaborative projects throughout Quebec.
The Association pour l’enseignement de la science et de la technologie au Québec helps improve the quality of science and technology education in Quebec, from preschool to university.

An elementary school, École Gadbois in Montreal, and a high school, Polyvalente de Black Lake in Thetford Mines, are also partners in this project, to which dozens of school personnel from across the province also contributed.

About the NovaScience program

The ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie‘s NovaScience program aims to promote a greater understanding of science and technology among youth and the general public, as well as the training of a new generation of scientists.