Universe Awareness

Good afternoon and thank you for giving me the opportunity to present the Universe Awareness programme.

Universe Awareness, or UNAWE as it is known, is a new international initiative for a worldwide scientific culture. It aims at exposing very young, underprivileged children to the inspirations aspects of astronomy in order to broaden their perspectives, enhance their understanding of the world and demonstrate the power of rational thought. By broadening children’s minds, UNAWe hopes to stimulate tolerance and internationalism among the future adults children will become.

One might wonder why Astronomy is suited for this goal, and why astronomy could be atool for peace education. Well, astronomy is of course a science and as such, it stimulates children’s curiosity. It is also a fantastic ambassador for all sciences: physics, chemistry, even biology are subjects of research in astronomy. Of course it also leads the development of technology and this is very exciting.

Astronomy is also part of our culture. All civilisations have a cultural relationship with the night sky. As such astronomy is a part of our cultural heritage and links culture and science in a human context. Astronomy is also history. not only because looking at the stars is looking into the past, but also because the history of astronomy is tied closely with human development. I am thinking of navigation, calculation of seasons, etc. Finally, astronomy is history in the making. In the next few years countries like Nigeria have already entered the Space age and will continue to do so.

What is probably most important for UNAWE, though, is that astronomy is fun for children. It is exotic, far away, colourful, stimulating and beautiful.

The motivation behind the programme is multiple. We assume that awareness of the scale and beauty of the universe is exciting for children. We also claim that basic knowledge about the Universe is a birthright, and what we mean by that, is that the present remarkable achievements in astronomy and space are the result of thousands of years of human development and as such belong to our global heritage. All children should therefore have access to it.

We also acknowledge that the ages of 4 to 10 are decisive in the formation of a human value system and that knowledge about the universe can broaden the mind.

Why does UNAWE target so young and specifically underprivileged children? We believe they are less likely to be exposed in any other way to the great beauty of the universe compared to their more privileged peers.

Finally, the youngest are the most similar. Four year-old children are 1

very much the same across the whole world, At the age of say 14, they are very different: cultural and cognitive differences are much more pronounced.

The principles at the heart of the programme are as follows; The materials and activities to be developed will be based on inspiration rather than the transmission of facts. This is very important if we want this to touch the children. Internationally, it is also crucial that we adopt a bottom-up approach so that the programme can be tailored to suit the needs of all communities. Finally, we adopt a general approach in which awareness of the Earth can lead to an environmental awareness, or cultural diversity, etc.

The programme itself is composed of three main ingredients. First, materials will be developed. It is important that these are developed professionally to compete with the most appealing commercial materials available.

They will also have to be translated into not only languages but also cultures across the participating countries. Training is an important component of the programme. It offers a platform for dialogue between the implementers of the programme and the developers of the programme. The level and form of training must be adapted to each country and community as well.

Finally, UNAWE is also an international network of Astronomy enthusiasts, outreach professionals and volunteers who subscribe to the principles of UNAWE. This network offers the possibility for its members to dialogue, exchange materials and benefit from each others’ experience.

We have just entered the development phase of the programme and we aim to start implementing it in a streamlined manner in 2009, the International Year of Astronomy. There have already been pilot activities in Venezuela and Tunisia, for instance.

Universe Awareness is a global programme with collaborators and contacts in over 20 countries. In the European Union, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands are involved to various degrees. Outside of Europe, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Tunisia and Venezuela are most active so far.

So how does Universe Awareness fit in the UK context? The UK is a very multicultural society with marginalised communities that UNAWE could reach out to. At the same time, the UK has a number of excellent outreach initiative on the go already that UNAWE could piggyback onto.

The idea here is not to reinvent the wheel but to join existing efforts with the UNAWE goals in mind: 4 to 10 year olds and using astronomy to inspire children.

The last thing I would like to mention is that UNAWE will be present next month at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Preston and I would like to invite you all t join the Education and Public Outreach sessions.

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This will also be the opportunity to set up a group of people to look into practically develop UNAWE in the UK ahead of the International year of Astronomy in 2009.

Thank you for your attention and I hope to see you next month.

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¨ The President. The next talk is by Dr. Carolina Odman of Leiden, and she’s going to tell us about the Universe Awareness Programme, which originated in the Netherlands but has become an international programme. ¨ Dr. Odman.

The President. Thank you very much. Questions?

Mr. H. Regnart. May I make two suggestions? The first is that although you make a very good point about setting up your programme in a way that is culturally accessible to any particular group, it should aim towards being multicultural, as the history and present state of astronomy is, and it can be a way of helping people avoid narrow-mindedness and isolation. And the second suggestion is this: you are targeting a large part of the programme at very young children, some of whom may have had rather limited opportunities; but there may be a small fraction of those children who are potential prodigies, and who will want to go beyond the programme you have devised, into the maths and logic, etc., at an age much younger than the average. May I suggest that you have people on the lookout for such boys and girls? They may be the future leaders of the subject. ¨ Dr. Odman.

Thank you very much for those two remarks. The first suggestion is completely incorporated in the programme already. It has to be multicultural; perhaps I didn’t put that across well enough so thank you for pointing that out. As to your second point, I’ll bear that in mind and I’ll raise it at the round-table discussion next month.

Professor B. W. Jones.

Have you had any interaction with the International Astronomical

Union (IAU), and in particular Commission 46, astronomy education and development? ¨ Dr. Odman.

We are working hand in hand with the IAU for the International Year of Astronomy, because it’s a fantastic platform for both. The vice-president of Commission 46, Rosa Ros, is setting up and running Universe Awareness in Spain.

Mrs. Marguerite Laporte. I noticed on your proposal that you have hands-on material, but it

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didn’t mention longer projects. I was part of a team myself, about 35 years ago, and we did exactly what you’re doing, with the south-east education branches in the UK. We visited schools to work with children from about four years old up to sixteen, and it was astonishing: children have a natural affinity for this kind of thing — anything to do with the Universe — and they also are able to cope very well with it. So I think this programme is good. But do I take it that you will be undertaking extended projects? They are vital to getting the young children to work together, making models of the planets, the Solar System, the Sun, and that kind of thing. ¨ Dr. Odman.

Yes, I didn’t want to go into too much detail, but projects are definitely part of it. I would love to talk to you more about this, so let me catch up with you afterwards.

A Fellow. This is an ambitious programme and it’s very laudable. I was just wondering how are you funding it and do you have enough money for all of this? ¨ Dr. Odman.

Last October we received a grant for three years from the Dutch Ministry of

Education to run the international office; this would be completely separate from, say, a Dutch programme that would be set up in the Netherlands for Dutch children. So there is a strong signal from the Dutch government that they support the international programme. We also have some current funding from ESO and from the Lauren [??] Centre in the Netherlands. We are now in the development phase and we are trying to raise funds to produce materials; we’re aiming for high-quality materials and so we expect them to be expensive.

Professor J. Barrow.

In the UK, school teachers for the primary age group 4–10 years are

not subject specialists, so you can’t necessarily expect them to have any particular knowledge about mathematical science in the way that you might with secondary-school teachers, and they need rather a lot of support. The so-called Science Learning Centres were initially set up over a year ago for supporting science teaching, and there is now a National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. These organisations are nationally charged with developing professional development amongst science and mathematics teachers, and they stem right down to the primary-school age groups. So it’s quite important for you to try to make contact with these, certainly with the Science Learning Centres, to make sure the subject material is available

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as part of the professional-development programmes offered to primary-school teachers. ¨ Dr. Odman.

Thank you, I absolutely agree with you. Although we don’t consider this as a

science-education programme as such, it is crucial to be in close contact with the people who know how the teachers should interpret material for the children. As a matter of fact, I’m going to visit the Science Learning Centre in Durham next week, so I’m very excited about that.

The President. One last question.

Professor B. Davis. There are a lot of amateur astronomy societies throughout the UK and in many other countries which have events like star parties, and bring schools in to their observatories. I’ve been along to one on the Isle of Wight, and last weekend we had a marvellous star party for the lunar eclipse, with about 50 people, including families with children of all ages, marvelling at the wonderful event. I think many of these organisations might well be incorporated into your strategy of inspiring the general public, including children, with the wonder of the Universe. ¨ Dr. Odman.

That’s an excellent point and we do hope to collaborate with amateurs. One idea is that a club of amateur astronomers may have a special evening when amateurs will spend time working with a school from a disadvantaged area, an urban area, for instance. And you mentioned the lunar eclipse — we also took advantage of the eclipse last week, and we had a skycast: an internet hook-up, with a text-and-voice chat room, between boarding schools in South Africa and school pupils in Germany; we were in Germany, looking at the eclipse, uploading pictures onto a website, running a show for four and a half hours. It was a great success, and people joined in from many countries. It was very, very popular, so the international link between different hemispheres and different time zones was extremely successful. That can be easily arranged, especially in the UK which has all the infrastructure and facilities.

The President. During the eclipse the RAS website had ten times as many hits as usual [laughter], though it actually didn’t have much on the website about the eclipse.

Dr. F. Diego. Along the same lines, the International Planetary Society will be a very good

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organisation to link with, and the European Association for Astronomy Education. ¨ Dr. Odman.

Yes, and they’re involved. In ten days or so there is a very interesting two-day conference in India, celebrating 30 years of planetaria in India and looking to the future, and they will also be looking at and presenting Universe Awareness there as well.

The President. Well thank you very much. Don’t forget to take part in this event at the NAM.

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