Announcements

Swiss High School Students Organise Educational Activities in Mayotte

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 10:10:12 +0200

Three students of the Gymnase du Bugnon in Lausanne, Switzerland, launched a new project to teach children on Mayotte about astronomy. As part of their high school graduation project, they are organising AstroMobile for which they will visit 6 schools on Mayotte, a small island near Madagascar. They will visit Mayotte in October 2018. They are planning to raise the students’ curiosity about astronomy in workshops and organize stargazing activities. They will also organize extra-curricular activities in collaboration with local associations.

In april 2017, Philippe Kobel, physics teacher in Lausanne, Switzerland, took his class to an observatory in the mountains. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see the sky, but instead they watched a documentary about the first GalileoMobile expedition. At the end of the year, when the students had to choose a subject for their “Travail de maturité” (a yearlong graduation project), Loïs Cheseaux decided to set up a project like GalileoMobile, in which astronomy outreach is used in a spirit of inclusion, sustainability, and cultural exchange to create a feeling of unity under the same sky. She convinced her classmates Louis Gogniat and Chloé Voirol and the AstroMobile Mayotte project was born. “Astronomy is an incredible science, because it arouses the curiosity of children and allows adults to see the world differently", says Chloé.

With Phillipe Kobel as their tutor, they started looking for a location for the project. Since the students preferred to do the project in French or English, they found three possibilities: Mayotte, Cambodia and Morocco. In all these places they knew a local correspondent. In the end they found a contact person on Mayotte who worked with the right age group, namely children aged 10 to 12. Moreover, they liked this location, because it is very multicultural, with many people from the other islands of the Comoros living there.

Children are drawing a constellation during a try out activity in Switzerland

For the students, it is the first time they have to manage such a big project. Chloé is responsible for contacting the schools on Mayotte. It turned out harder than expected to find contact information of public schools online, but with the help of Jerome Mathey, teacher in Mayotte, she managed to reach enough schools. Louis is trying to collect money for the project with a crowdfunding campaign. The educational part is being managed by Loïs who spends a lot of time searching for the right words and activities to explain abstract concepts to 10-12 years olds.

As preparation for the project, the students organised various try out activities at schools in Switzerland to test the quality of the activities: Do the students understand the subject? Is the activity fun to do? What are the students most intrigued by? Not only the primary school students learned a lot during the few hours visit. Also Chloé, Loïs and Louis picked up new knowledge to use in their activities, which will take place in October of this year. With this project, they hope to inspire more young people to organise projects like this.

The sky is not the limit: 230 000 people reached by Space Awareness

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 14:53:24 +0200

Science education project Space Awareness engaged 230,000 people in 68 countries with the excitement and challenges of space sciences and technologies. After three years, the project coordinated by Leiden Observatory came to an end in March and has now been evaluated.

The project has raised the interest of young people in science, technology and career opportunities offered by the space industry. Space Awareness created and implemented 160 activities, such as local teacher trainings, an international Space Education Conference and 2 summer schools. Partners from 23 countries across Europe and Africa participated in the project.

Educational resources and teacher training
In these three years, the Space Awareness team developed and distributed 305 high-quality educational resources. Here are some examples of these resources:

The Climate Box: a low-cost, hands-on educational toolkit that teaches children about our climate, climate change and the habitability of other planets.
The Journey of Ideas: a toolkit that showcases the history and accomplishments of Islamic science and technology. The innovative tool tells the story of a shared history based on creativity, tolerance and respect for other cultures. Furthermore, it provides hands-on educational resources to familiarise teenagers with the immensely important contributions that scientists from North Africa and the Middle East made to the field of science and culture. With this toolkit European and global citizenship was stimulate, one of the main goals of the project.
Four Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) to train teachers. The team delivered the MOOCs to more than 2,400 educators from 68 countries. All participated in at least one of these courses.
Space Awareness hosted a 5-day International Space Education conference in 2016, in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Galileo Teacher Training Programme. This event brought together about 100 professional educators.
A Space Career booklet which provides a compilation of information about space careers and relevant employers. According to the independent reviewer appointed by the European Union, the careers booklet offers ‘a good representation of role models for young people interested in the space industry’.

Adults learn about astronomy and space in a Space Awareness workshop

Long-term impact
To ensure long-term impact, the resources were translated into several languages to make them accessible in classrooms worldwide. The Commision’s independent reviewer stated: ‘The project has delivered exceptional results with significant immediate or potential impact.’ In her report, she emphasised that the added value of the platform is that it offers educational resources to educators. ‘[...] This has resulted in creating a ‘best in class’ portal hosting high quality and accessible, attractive peer-reviewed resources that are designed with the classroom teacher in mind.’

Space Awareness has shown that space is an extremely effective tool for motivating and educating children and teenagers, fostering fundamental values of tolerance and engaging the public in science, technology and innovation. Such public engagement also helps to inform the public that support for scientific research and technological innovation are important for the future of our society.

The European Commission also wrote an article about Space Awareness. You can find it here: European youth encouraged to reach for the stars.

Space Awareness Partners
Funded by European Union's Horizon 2020, Space Awareness was a partnership between:

Ciência Viva, Portugal;
Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece;
Ecsite, Belgium;
European Schoolnet, Belgium;
Haus der Astronomie, Germany;
National Research Foundation, South Africa;
Leiden University, the Netherlands;
Nuclio, Portugal;
The Open University, United Kingdom and
University College London, United Kingdom.

Applications for the ESA-Galileo Teachers Training Workshop Open

Sat, 08 Sep 2018 12:03:10 +0200

The European Space Agency (ESA) together with the Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) are organising the annual training workshop for European teachers. Participants will have the chance to explore innovative ways to use space science and astronomy in the classroom to engage students in the sciences. This year’s workshop will take place 20 – 23 November at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Applications are due by 09:00 CEST on Monday 1 October 2018.

During the diverse workshop programme teachers will participate in practical sessions, to try out and discuss classroom experiments and demonstrations, alongside sessions that will investigate applying different teaching methods (such as inquiry-based and project-based learning). In addition, participants will attend keynote lectures from ESA experts, have an opportunity to visit the ESTEC facilities, and to network with their peers from across Europe to share ideas and best practises.

The workshop is open to secondary school teachers (of students between 11 and 18 years old) of STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects residing and working within any ESA Member and Associate States. The priority will be given to teachers who have not participated in previous ESA teacher workshops. Teachers wishing to apply should complete the online application form before Monday 1 October. Successful applicants will be informed that they have secured a place at the workshop on or before 9 October. Follow GTTP on Facebook for more training workshops coming up.

Contact
Rebecca Barnes
Email: rebecca.barnes@esa.int
Directorate of Science, ESA

Win a Telescope Signed by Astronauts

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 16:14:46 +0200

Have you ever wanted a telescope signed by astronauts? In the framework of the IAU100 celebrations, the Belgian initiative Sterren Schitteren voor Iedereen (SSVI) and Universe Awareness are giving away 10 Bresser Refractor telescopes that have been signed by astronauts to support astronomy educational activities with children around the world. These will be used during the 100 Hours of Astronomy 2.0 Global Project on 10-13 January 2019.

The 100 Hours of Astronomy 2.0 project invites amateur astronomers, educators, professional astronomers, planetaria, science centres and more to arrange stargazing and other astronomy-related events around the world on 10-13 January 2019. This event is part of the IAU100 Celebrations that commemorates a century of astronomy research and discoveries since the founding of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1919.

We invite everyone to submit an application to win a telescope that can be used for the 100 Hours of Astronomy event. The telescope is a refractor Bresser 90/900 and will be delivered with a special mount, custom-made by ATM group “kijkerbouw VSRUG” (Ghent Belgium) for the project SSVI. The equipment comes complete with telescope tube, viewfinder, zenith prism, one accompanying eyepiece plössl 25mm and the mount. This telescope can be used to observe the Moon, the planets of our Solar System, some of their moons, and the most bright Messier objects (for example the Orion Nebula, globular clusters and binary stars).

In 2019, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is celebrating its 100th anniversary. To commemorate this milestone, the IAU is organising a year-long celebration to increase awareness of a century of astronomical discoveries as well as to support and improve the use of astronomy as a tool for education, development and diplomacy under the central theme "Under One Sky". More information about the IAU100 Celebrations can be found on their website.

How to participate

Submit 1 paragraph (max 300 words) describing how and where you would use the telescope to inspire underserved children with astronomy. Priority will be given to activities that take gender and minority populations into account and those that pay special attention to the inclusion of girls and those with disabilities in astronomy.
Please also include how many children and/or teachers you aim to reach, and whether you can have technical support available to help you with the building, use and maintenance of the telescope. Send your submission through this form before 5 October 2018.

Eligibility

Submission is open to entries from any country
Submissions will be judged on creativity, impact, feasibility and sustainability of the project. Please note: the telescopes are meant for educational and outreach activities, not for individual use.
Only one entry per group/individual will be accepted.
The closing date for the competition is 5 October 2018. As long as it is 5 October somewhere in the world, applications will be accepted. Winners will be announced by late-October 2018 with distribution of the telescopes shortly thereafter.
Winning entries will be asked to provide photographs of their use of the telescope, including the ones taken during the 100 Hours of Astronomy event.
Winners will be sent a telescope (in several packages) with a tracking number. Information about the educational value of the telescope will be included. The recipient of the telescope will be responsible for any local expenses (like customs taxes). It is not possible to resend the telescope, so accurate address and contact phone number should be provided.

Contact

Bethany Downer
100 Hours of Astronomy 2.0 Coordinator
downer@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Jorge Rivero González
IAU100 International Coordinator
rivero@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Space Scoop Newspaper: Childrens' Astronomy News Now in Print

Mon, 03 Sep 2018 12:49:59 +0200

Universe Awareness is excited to announce the release of the first ever Space Scoop newspaper, offering astronomy news to children around the world in a new hands-on format!

No matter your age, what you do for a living or where you live, chances are you’ll engage with the news at some level every single day. For many adults, the first question that comes to mind each morning is, “What are the latest news headlines?” To answer this question, adults can refer to a variety of news sources, including television, newspaper and the Internet.

For seven years, Space Scoop has been working to make the latest astronomy news accessible to children, too.

Sharing the excitement of the latest scientific discoveries is one of the best tools that we have to inspire the public — including young children. The question isn’t whether astronomical news can inspire children, but how we can best communicate this information to younger audiences.

Space Scoop is a weekly astronomy news service for children aged 8+, that shares the latest discoveries from 13 astronomical organisations to children around the world. Space Scoop has now published more than 350 astronomy news stories for young children on a dedicated website (www.spacescoop.org). These news stories successfully tackle a wide variety of subjects — everything from exoplanets to cosmic re-ionisation — in an accessible and engaging way.

Now children can learn about the Universe over breakfast, on the school bus or before bed with the first Space Scoop newspaper, a compilation of twelve of the most exciting science stories of the last five years.

Download and print a copy to share with the children in your life and show them what black holes eat, the recipe for life or simply take them a journey to the edge of the Universe!

Links:

Space Scoop website
View or Download the Space Scoop newspaper PDF
Download all Space Scoop newspaper files

Please contact Sarah Eve Roberts with any queries about Space Scoop or the Space Scoop newspaper at seroberts@lco.global

Special IAU Prize Awarded to First Universe Awareness Project Manager

Fri, 31 Aug 2018 16:02:35 +0200

Carolina Ödman-Govender has been recognised for her pioneering work in astronomy outreach, development and education with a Special IAU Prize by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) at the 2018 XXX IAU General Assembly in Vienna, Austria. She is Associate Professor at the University at the Western Cape and Associate Director, Development & Outreach for the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy in South Africa.

This special EC Award reflects the IAU’s new strategic action plan, as it intends to continue diversifying its portfolio of prizes to reflect changes in its priorities. The IAU also aims to have regular prizes in outreach, development and education, but needs further funding to support these prizes. This award is seen as an integral first step towards this vision.

Ödman was the first International Project Manager of Universe Awareness (UNAWE) at Leiden University from 2005 to 2010. UNAWE is an international programme that aims to inspire young children with the inspirational aspects of Astronomy. The programme’s goals are to broaden children’s minds, awaken their natural curiosity in science, empower them with independent thinking and to connect them with other children throughout the world. She successfully led the transformation of an idea into an active programme in more than 40 countries with national programmes and governmental support in 6 countries, reaching more than 200 000 children in that period.

Prize winner Carolina Ödman-Govender

UNAWE was a global cornerstone of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 and the programme’s early success is in large part due to Dr Ödman’s exceptional talent and leadership. Ödman has also contributed to various other outreach and education efforts in the field of astronomy. As the Director of Academic Development at the AIMS Next Einstein Initiative at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town, she contributed greatly to the AIMS mission of giving young African scientists the opportunity to learn from recognised lecturers around the world. She also served as Chief Scientist at Thumzup, a South African company that pioneers the development of new technology for consumers.

Throughout her career, Carolina has received several awards for her accomplishments, including the SPORE Science Prize for Online Resources in Education Science Magazine from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also held roles on various international advisory committees for science outreach and astronomy.

Although Ödman was not present to accept the award, the prize was presented to her husband, Kevin Govender, Director of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development. The prize consists of €2500 personal award plus €2500 toward an outreach, development or education project of Dr. Ödman’s choice.

Clean up your space for amazing prizes

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 13:49:39 +0200

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) has established an exciting competition for 11 to 18-year-olds. By collecting discarded materials (such as plastic and wood) entrants can “upcycle” these items to build a creation based upon EUMETSAT's satellites or facilities. Participants are encouraged to display care for their local environment and to promote recycling awareness. The best three models will be awarded prizes!

In this contest, participants will learn about the role of meteorological satellites in monitoring and caring for the health of our planet. Moreover, the importance of recycling is emphasized and the entrants will see how many materials can be easily reused. As long as the materials that are used pose no harm to anyone, anything can be used. Other items to assist in construction, such as glue and staples, are allowed as long as the main structure consists of recycled items.

The 2018 Learning Zone Competition

All students aged 11 to 18 attending public, private or home schools can join this competition. They should document where the waste was collected and should introduce themselves and their masterpiece once it is complete to explain how it works. The deadline to submit an entry is 16 September 2018. On 8 October, the winner will be announced.

The creations will be judged based on creativity, sustainability and aesthetic aspects. The public’s opinion will also contribute to the final vote. The first prize is a GoPro HERO6 and the second and third prizes are compact cameras.

Indonesian children learn about extraterrestrial life

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 13:54:49 +0200

Do UFO's exist? Avivah Yamani, UNAWE's network member from Indonesia, answered this question asked by an Indonesian child on the Anak Bertanya website — a website for Indonesian children where they can get there questions answered by experts. The website is meant for children age 10 to 12 that are curious about many things in life, such as the universe, the environment, human behaviour, arts, etc.

Yamani's answer to this interesting question has been turned into a book and corresponding audiobook. In this book, some children spot a curious object flying around. They start wondering what it could be and ask their teacher if she knows. The teachers explains that it could be anything. Although there is no proof that aliens fly in UFO's or even exist, astronomers do search for life on exoplanets.

Anak Bertanya decided to turn the blog post about UFO's into a book, since it was a very interesting subject and they aimed to reach the Indonesian children that have no access to the internet too. The books are designed with many images to make it attractive to children. To reach even more children, i.e those that cannot read yet, there is also an audiobook version.

This book is one of the series of two books published on a blog post on the Anak Bertanya website. The other book is called What do you want to be when you grow up?. Moreover, six books have been published from the compilations of the most interesting questions from the website. These books are published in pairs: one on natural sciences and one on social sciences. Indonesia's free cargo literacy project made it possible to send the Anak Bertanya books for free to libraries in Indonesia.

With their website and these books, Anak Bertanya is building on Indonesian science literacy. In total, Anak Bertanya has already sent more than 15,000 books to over 950 library's all around Indonesia. To be able to achieve this, they worked together with the Indonesia Post Office and Pustaka Bergerak, the Moving Library.

The questions on the Anak Bertanya website are not only answered by experts to be sure that the answers are correct. More importantly, in this way children get in contact with people in a specific profession which might inspire them to learn more about this field. Not only the answer to the question is explained; also the profession of the expert is described in more depth.

Teachers Get More Comfortable With Teaching Space

Tue, 03 Jul 2018 14:16:50 +0200

Starting on 25 June, Scientix hosted a five-day event for teachers who give classes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). On the third day, the 13th Scientix Projects’ Networking Event brought project managers and teachers together. Mahbobah Ahmadi presented multiple projects of the Astronomy & Society Group of Leiden University such as UNAWE and astroEDU. Moreover, Han Tran of astroEDU gave a workshop for the teachers.

Ahmadi inspired the teachers to use astronomy in their classes to introduce their students with STEM subjects. Thereafter, she presented shortly various possibilities to do so, such as through astroEDU's peer-reviewed activities and the Universe in a Box. After the presentation session everyone got together to discuss the challenges in using STEM in primary education. Recommendations to improve STEM education throughout Europe were formulated. The results of the discussion will be published in a Scientix Observatory article co-authored by all participants.

Ahmadi presenting the projects of the Astronomy & Society Group of Leiden University

On the fourth day of the event, Han Tran of astroEDU gave a workshop on how to use astronomy in the classroom. The teachers got the opportunity to develop their own astronomy activities. After defining the learning goals and objectives, they received materials from the Universe in a Box educational kit. Using these materials, they developed new inquiry-based activities for their classroom.

Why teaching Space? One of the discussed topics in the astroEDU workshop.

Then the teachers presented their activities to each other. Various interesting and educative activities were designed. For instance, one group developed an interactive activity in which students representing the Sun, the Earth and the Moon would move around each other to show the movement of these astronomical bodies. To conclude the workshop Tran gave some extra information on astroEDU and encouraged the teachers to upload the activities they just developed or other activities on the astroEDU website to get their activities peer-reviewed.

Fragility of our planet stressed in book by UNAWE Bengali representative

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 16:35:57 +0200

Farseem Mannan Mohammedy - Bangladesh representative of Universe Awareness - wrote a book called “From this Fragile Earth to the Stars”. This book, written in Bengali, is about the fragility of the earth. It conveys the idea that we should take good care of the earth, because we cannot afford losing her. The inspiration of the book rose at at a five-day Universe Awareness conference in 2013.

The book is aimed at teenagers, to make the next generation aware of how much humankind depends on Earth. If people keep polluting it and using fossil fuels like it is done now, we will lose our only home planet. As a teacher, he decided it was important to educate students on how to take care of our planet. Moreover, it is also an interesting book for teachers, artists, parents and other people involved in teaching teenagers about the fragility of the earth.

Moreover, Mohammedy presses the importance of astronomy. Investigating other planets and solar systems could help us find a new planet to travel to, if the earth would ever become too unstable to inhabit. At the same time, emphasis on appreciating the natural resources, the biodiversity etc. is stressed, so that the next generation accepts Earth as the only habitat. The incidents of mass extinctions of animals are discussed to showcase the fragility and the connectedness of the earth system as a whole.

During the conference in 2013, organised by the Universe Awareness program in Haus der Astronomy in Heidelberg, Mohammedy attended a group workshop. In this workshop, he worked on presenting the earth a fragile planet. To get this message through, they used the fact that the earth has unique properties for providing a shelter to a wide variety of biological species including humans. This concept inspired Mohammedy to write his new book.

Farseem Mannan Mohammedy is a professor of Electrical Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. However, since high school he has a passion for astronomy, which gave him inspiration for the approximately 20 Bengali books he has written. Moreover, he is the Joint Secretary of the Bangladesh Astronomical Society, for which he organises astronomical activities, and he is the Bangladesh representative of Universe Awareness.