UNAWE Newsletter, July 2006

Universe Awareness Newsletter #2, July 2006

Contact: Dr. Carolina Ödman, Universe Awareness, Leiden Observatory, P.O. Box 9513, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]

In this issue:

Updates on the development of Universe Awareness Pilot Project in Venezuela - Part II

Pilot Project in Tunisia A new role: the Universe Awareness Network

Universe Awareness at the IAU General Assembly Universe Awareness Multidisciplinary workshop, October 9 - 13, 2006

“Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another”

Plato Welcome to the second issue of the Universe Awareness Newsletter. Since the first number in March 2006 the development of the programme has continued at a sustained pace. We are particularly grateful to everyone who has sent us educational and outreach material to be added to the Universe Awareness “Library”. If you have any ideas and suggestions, you are welcome to share them. Feel free to contact us via the online form on our website, or send an email directly to Carolina Ödman at [email protected].

Updates on the development of Universe Awareness

The Dutch ministry of Education Culture and Science (OCW) has sent the Lorentz Centre their budget for the next five years with a mention about Universe Awareness. This has resulted in additional support from the Lorentz Centre for which we are very grateful.

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The UNAWE International Steering Committee held a meeting on April 4 and 5 at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut in Heidelberg, Germany. The meeting was followed by a presentation of Universe Awareness to an audience of astronomers, UNICEF co-workers, members of the private sector and the press. Prof. Joachim Wambsganss and Prof. Andreas Quirrenbach, the directors of the Astronomisches-Rechen Institut and of the Landessternwarte Heidelberg respectively, spent the morning with us. An article about Universe Awareness was published in the Rhein Neckar Zeitung on April 6 and a radio interview of Dr. Cecilia Scorza de Appl was broadcast in the evening of the 5th. The article can be downloaded on the UNAWE website at the following address:

http://www.UniverseAwareness.org/index.php?page=workshops&ws=heidelberg_04_2006 The enthusiasm shown by the participants to the meeting was, along with beautiful films of the Venezuelan experience, yet another reminder of the relevance and beauty of the Universe Awareness programme.

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The magazine of the Irish National Astronomy Society “Astronomy and Space” published an article about UNAWE in its July issue. Sean McCabe, an Irish Astronomy graduate student wrote the contribution. We are not yet in possession of the magazine but we can already tell you that the article is well worth a read. Sean will join us at the 2nd UNAWE multidisciplinary workshop in October.



Prof. Federico Mayor, Founder of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and former Director General of UNESCO (1987 - 1999) has sent us a warm message of endorsement. The news come as Spain just joined the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO). Another endorsement comes from Prof. Michel Mayor, a Swiss astronomer who was the first to detect planets beyond our Solar System. His discovery captured the attention of the public and revived the question of life elsewhere in the Universe.

Pilot Project in Venezuela - Part II

In March a second teacher-training workshop took place. The total number of teachers being trained in Venezuela has reached almost 90. During this second visit, Dr. Cecilia Scorza de Appl visited a remote primary school member of UNESCO's ASPNet to see the programme in action. At the “Flor de Maldonado” school, every teacher had been briefed second-hand by the only teacher who had attended the first workshop in Mérida. All 500 pupils had taken part in astronomical activities in the classroom and build their own toys using paper and cardboard.

The culminating point of the visit was the show put on by the pupils in which they dressed up as celestial bodies and sang and danced.

They had written poems about what they represented. A Venezuelan astronaut read out a poem written by the school in which he said that the children of Venezuela would sow the seeds of peace on planet Earth. This is what Universe Awareness is about.

Pilot Project in Tunisia Dr. Naoufel Ben Maaouia sent us a beautifully illustrated report about Universe Awareness activities in Tunisia. Below are highlights of the report. The full text translated from French can be found on the UNAWE website on http://www.UniverseAwareness.org/ index.php?page=pilot_project_tunisia

The Universe Awareness activities in Tunisia are led by the Cité des Sciences, the Science Park based in Tunis in collaboration and with the support of the Tunisian Ministry of Women, Families, Children and Elderly Affairs. Astronomy workshops designed for young children (ages 4 - 10) are on the list of possible activities in the park since November 2005 and the Cité des Sciences has just published the first interactive astronomy CD-ROM in Arabic.

As part of the same initiative, they organised in May a training day in astronomy for 14 civil servants of the ministry in charge of children's clubs. The aim is to create astronomy clubs in Chidren’s Clubs in each governorate with a pilot phase aimed at creating 7 pilot clubs in 7 districts.



The extensive workshop covered topics such as stars and their evolution, the solar system, history of astronomy, spectroscopy, gravitation, compared planetology, solar observations, children's astronomy, astronomical distance measurements, educational tools and didactics. It was followed by observations of the night sky, which was a first for most participants.

The Cité des Sciences also has an “Astro-bus” that reaches out to children in the most disadvantaged regions of the country. Since January 2006, the Astro-bus has travelled across the whole country. Over 1000 children of 4 – 10 years have visited the Astro-Bus. The collaboration between the bus and the astronomy clubs in the Children’s Clubs will increase in the future.

A new role: The Universe Awareness Network

It has come to our attention that with the large number of emails we have received from astronomy enthusiasts organising benevolent outreach initiatives across the world, there is a need for a new networking platform. Amateur and professional astronomers and astronomy educators from Colombia to Israel have contacted us. They all show an interest for the project and they all have experience that is only equalled by their resourcefulness. If a National Action Committee cannot be formed in each country we have contacts with, it would be sad to turn down such enthusiasm, experience and local knowledge. Moreover, international initiatives can be organised across language regions if National Action Committees wish to do so but for that, they need to be in contact.

In order to facilitate the exchange of ideas and provide communication channels between these outreach specialists, we are developing a community website, which will act as a network for UNAWE activities. The network will be launched worldwide from the 2nd UNAWE multidisciplinary workshop in Leiden next October.

Universe Awareness at the IAU General Assembly

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) holds its General Assembly in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic in August this year. This global reunion of astronomers has an extensive scientific programme but also two special sessions (SPS) particularly relevant to the Universe Awareness Programme. SPS2 where Dr. Cecilia Scorza de Appl is going to present an oral contribution is entitled “Innovation in Methods of Teaching and Learning Astronomy”. The website of SPS2 can be found at: http://www.communicatingastronomy.org/innovation2006/ SPS5 “Astronomy for the Developing World”. The website for this fascinating session can be found at: http://sps5.saao.ac.za/ Most astronomers involved with Universe Awareness, closely or less so, will attend the IAU General Assembly. We are taking this opportunity to organise an ad-hoc meeting to update each other on various developments and meet face to face.



Universe Awareness Multidisciplinary workshop,

October 9 - 13, 2006

Preparation for the workshop is going well. The programme is still being discussed but we are happy to say the Dutch Minister for Education, Culture and Science (OCW) is going to open the workshop on Monday, October 9. Her visit will coincide with the launch of the Universe Awareness network and of the Dutch Universe Awareness initiative. We are going to show her the material that has been sent in by people around the world. We expect the workshop and her visit to prompt some media attention, which we are of course welcoming warmly. We are grateful to the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern

Hemisphere, ESO, for supporting the workshop. This allows us to invite participants whose expertise is crucial for the development of the programme and who would not have been able to come otherwise. The registration for the workshop is now open on the workshop website at http://www.lc.leidenuniv.nl/lc/web/2006/211/registration.php3?wsid=211 If you would like to come to the workshop, or if you would like to sponsor a participant, please get in touch with Carolina Ödman by email at [email protected].

This newsletter can be found on the Universe Awareness website at: http://www.UniverseAwareness.org/index.php?page=newsletter

UNAWE Newsletter, July 2006

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