EUNAWE Presentation Arcetri, IT

Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory

EUNAWE KickoffMeeting – Leiden

The Team:Lara AlbaneseFranco PaciniAlessandra Zanazzi

Francesco PallaDirector OAA

Galileo at Arcetri: Villa Il Gioiello

Main outreach activities

• Day- and night-time visits

• Lectures at the Planetarium

• Open days and special events

• Education activities(teachers students, parents )

• Special projects

Amici Telescope(1866 – 37 cm)Fully restored and (almost) perfectlyworking, it is the main attraction forpeople visiting the Observatory

On a clear night, it can show the craters of the moon, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the Orion nebula, passing comets and much more…

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Mainactivities

• Day- and night-time visits

• Lectures at the Planetarium (13000/y)

The program includes lectures forschools (Monday through Friday) and the general public (Thursday night; Sunday afternoon)

Main activities

• Day- and night-time visits

• Lectures at the Planetarium

• Special events and open days (1000/y)

Special events: The Annual Science Festival in Genoa (2007, 2008, 2009); Festival della Creatività, in Florence; Mondadori Junior festival in Verona

Open daysEach year the Arcetri Observatory opens its gates to ~ 500 children (and ~ 1000 parents), an event called “Bambineide” ( = A Children’s Epic)

The “Bambineide” exploits the fascinationof astronomy to attract primary-schoolchildren in a scientific research institution, where they can familiarize withastronomical instrumentation, askquestions to professional astronomers …

… and take part in simple scientificexperiments with sound, air and light, promoting a hands-on approach toscience

Young spectroscopists at work (under the expert’s eyes)

During the visit, children can partake in a show inside a Starlab planetarium, observe the night sky and listen to stories about the constellations and their mythology

Mainactivities• Day- and night-time visits

• Lecturesat the Planetarium

• Open days and specialevents

• Education activities(teachers students, parents )

• Courses and round tables on astronomyeducation for teachers (in the framework of Pianeta Galileo programme )

• Activities for students and educational projects (Cieli di Rodari, etc)

• Courses for parents

Education, mainly addressed to primary schools

• Professional astronomerconferences and ‘ask to an astronomer’ eventsin the schools

Come and Visit us!

Main activities

• Day- and night-timevisits (7000 /y)

• Lectures at the Planetarium (13000/y)

• Open days and specialevents (1000/y)

• Education (teachersstudents, parents )

• Special projects

Special projects:The Sky over China, a multicultural experience (2005) sponsored by the International UniverseAwareness program

The idea came firts of all from the consideration thatin our country there’s a high percentage of foreigners, mainly distributed in suburbandisadvantaged areas

Since the sky and itsdemocratic principlesassociate people from allover the world, we exposeprimary and nursery schoolchildren to the fascinationof the night sky as seen in different parts of ourplanet, in order to stimulate a global citizenship feeling

ForeignForeignForeignForeign studentsstudentsstudentsstudents (%) (%) (%) (%) PrimaryPrimaryPrimaryPrimary schoolschoolschoolschool 2008/20092008/20092008/20092008/2009

The idea: to overcomelanguage barriers usingpictorial and theatricalexpression.

Use astronomy and the sky mithology as a bridge between differentcultures

[The star Vega as the chinese WeavingPrincess falling in love with Altair, the Imperial Herdsman]

Relying on the belief that every child has got his own favourite language to communicate and that the

variety of languages helps to understand the world, we generally organize the work in three stages:

1. a visit to the mobile planetarium of ourobservatory, where weshow the sky as seenfrom Italy, as well asfrom the part of the world under consideration.

2. discussions with the teachers and children with the idea of collecting and rediscovering the myths and legends which the families relate to their children; science experiments in the classroom; meet the astronomer

3. finally the children plantheir own planetariumshow which theyaccompany with drawing, stories and sound effectsand different techniquessuch as shadows puppettheatre

The sky over China

Our plan is to keep going with the «Skies of the world», working with children especially in disadvantaged communities and areas, all over the country

T1 – Training primary school teachers all over the country to provide inspiring lessons to young children, using the «Skies of the world» method

• Pilot schools for experimenting and testing educational materials, methodologies, languages with childrenAND teachers

• training courses for teachers(both on the ‘skies of the world’ experience and resourcesand on translated/adapted ones).

Declared in the project’s DoW:75+100 teachers1500+2000 children (20 x teacher)

AA 2010-2011• Montagnola : 10 class-groups x 25 students = 20

teachers + 250 students, • Zafferana Etnea April 11th – 15th children book

festival • Contacts in progress: Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Pistoia,

Firenze

T1: Train and empower primary school teachers in each partner country to provide inspiring lessons to young children, involving the Universe and space.T2: Develop, translate and disseminate hands-on and inquiry-base educational resources in each of the partner countries, emphasising European and South African science and technology.T4: Expose substantial numbers of young children in Italy to awareness of the Universe, emphasizingastronomy and space sciences for developingperspective and an appreciation of the rationalmethod.

WP5 – TEACHER TRAININGWP7 - RESOURCES

• T3: Provide a network for the exchange of expertise and material between educators of young children in EU member states, Associated Countries and International Cooperation Partner Countries.

• T5: Foster interaction and exchange of best practice

between professional scientists and primary leveleducators.

Teachers training allover the country & participation in events+ Italian web site

WP6 NATIONAL COMMUNICATION

www.arcetri.astro.it/cielidelmondo/