Proceedings of 10th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting 2008

Proceedings of 10th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting 2008, 1–2 (2008)

Printed 2 November 2008

(APRIM LATEX style file v1.0)

Universe Awareness for Children Premana W. Premadi Department of Astronomy and Bosscha Obsevatory, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Universe Awareness for Children is an international program whose mission is to broaden the mind of children, to enhance their understanding of the world, and to demonstrate the power of rational thought through the science of modern astronomy, by exposing to them the beauty and vastness of the Universe and all creative imagination that results from them. The program is illustrated here in the activities undertaken by Universe Awareness Indonesia.

Key words: Universe Awareness: astronomy, education, children

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INTRODUCTION

Universe Awareness (UNAWE) is an international program which generates, encourages, and develops ideas for a unique children activity in support of developing a worldwide scientific culture. It pays great attention to economically disadvantaged young children, aged between 4 and 10 years, to the inspirational aspect of astronomy. By conveying a feeling for the scale and beauty of the Universe, it aims to broaden the mind of the children, to enhance their understanding of the world, and to demonstrate the power of rational thought.

We are all a part of the Universe. Achievements in astronomy constitute a human heritage with a history of several millennia. Astronomy is a unique discipline for motivating and forming young children and imbuing them with an appreciation of both science and culture. It is a unique human activity with the purpose of understanding the world in which we live. Even though a simple knowledge about the Universe can be regarded as a basic birth right, unfortunately access to that knowledge is not readily available for everyone. UNAWE focuses on economically disadvantaged young children who are more likely to miss the chance to learn. Also UNAWE focuses on younger children, considering cognitive disparities between children are small at younger ages, and the formative ages of 4 to 10 years are crucial in child’s development.

UNAWE operates as an international multidisciplinary team of educators, teachers, astronomers, anthropologists, child development psychologists, and science public outreach professionals from a number of countries in the five continents. Whereas the generic ideas and motivation are internationally developed, the material and activities are developed bottom-up and can be uniquely enriched and implemented according to each country’s condition and cultural heritage. In encorporating local nature and the Universe in the material, four elements, namely Sky Awareness, Earth Awareness, The Solar System, and The Galaxy, will be inc 2008 APRIM !

troduced via various media suitable for young children, such as pictures, stories, movies, and games, in addition to the more standard public astronomy activities using portable telescope and mini planetarium.

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UNIVERSE AWARENESS IN INDONESIA

UNAWE Indonesia is a team consisting of 19 professional astronomers from the Department of Astronomy and the Bosscha Observatory of Institut Teknologi Bandung, alumni of the Department of Astronomy Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jakarta Planetarium, the Association of Astronomy Students, Rigel Kentaurus Astronomy Club, and the Jakarta Amateur Astronomer Association. The team works in the inventing and the developing of material and the programmes, and also in the running of visiting activities to groups of children. Each team member is also encouraged to bring in their respective networks which in turn will open access to various groups of children throughout Indonesia. UNAWE Indonesia works on a strictly non-profit philosophy. Currently all team members are employed elsewhere; their time, energy, expertise, and dedication to UNAWE Indonesia are contributed voluntarily.

Objectives: • Introducing the beauty and vastness of the Universe to young children • Building scientific mind of children through the science of astronomy • Providing the less fortunate children with wider options that lead to positive and joyful thinking and hope for a better future • Promoting peace among children around the world by exposing the Earth and Universe as their natural environment to be shared and cared for • Collecting and reviving local mythologies through

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Premana W. Premadi

story-telling while introducing celestial bodies to children as far as to create healthy imagination • Identifying ancient practical usage of astronomy in daily life, e.g. in farming and maritime • Empowering teachers to be well-motivated and capable educators Current goals: • Having children interested in and enjoy nature, including the beauty of the sky, no matter where and how they live • Letting children have firsthand experience in viewing a spectacular astronomical event such as a solar eclipse in a correct, safe, and enjoyable manner • Helping initiate ideas for which the science of nature can be learned in various modes and environments, complementary to school curriculum • Profiling children’s interest in nature and science, and their living and learning environments, in various parts of Indonesia • Collecting (astronomy related) folklores and games from local cultures

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ACTIVITIES AND MATERIALS

UNAWE Indonesia has developed simple programs and materials, mentioned in detail below, and implemented them as pilot projects in various places in Java. In 2007 UNAWE Indonesia managed to visit with about 1400 children in remote areas in East Java, and many more within West Java.

Those children, mainly in the age group of 3-12, were often accompanied by their older siblings (high school students), and/or their parents. Their teachers were present with the children and were given extra material for some independent follow-up activities. It must be mentioned that for communities in the remote villages this is their first exposure to astronomy, and it is delightful to know how eager they want to learn. We try to accommodate their enthusiast to our full capacity.

The visits are scheduled as such that long trips which cover about on ground 2000 km round trip, which with current road condition need at least 6 days, are to be carried out only during long vacation (December and July semester vacations). In general 3 locations can be visited in each long trip, with each location may accommodate 400-500 people.

Considering the load of work on the location and the strain of the long trip, this requires UNAWE comes in the full team of 16-18 persons. Short trips will cover on ground 300-500 km round trip which need 2 days and can be carried out on one weekend each month, and in general can be done with half team of 8-10 persons.

Each star party is set for 4-5 hours and will be filled with games, story-telling, and astronomy exploration movie in one setting, and mini planetarium and telescope viewing run in parallel. The allotted time is to accommodate about 300 persons in each village. The program is flexible and can be adjusted to fit the local condition, without losing the content.

For each visit we bring a set of equipments consisting of portable planetarium and dome tent, portable telescopes, binoculars, laptop computers, LCD projector.

We prepare the following materials: • Astronomy for children exposition software and movie • Easy-to-use star map • Astronomy-related mythology in books and computer presentation • Pictures of astronomical objects in form of postcard, posters, games • Scientific mind building and teamwork building games • Teaching material for teacher in CD-ROM and books • Back issues of Bobo magazines Due to their limited numbers, star maps, large posters, teaching material for teachers, Bobo magazines, and some games will be left for the schools to manage the distribution and usage, whereas each child will get some other games and 2 postcards: one postcard with astronomy picture for them to keep, and one postcard of Indonesian scenery with enough stamp to be mailed to their penpals. We encourage the children to share their feelings and ideas of the sky, of universe, and of Indonesia to their will-be friends in other area of Indonesia and even abroad.

To ensure that all children (and their accompanying adults) will be fairly attended to, previous experiences in star parties with more than 300 children led us to prepare a team with at least 12 persons: 2-3 at the telescope; 2-3 at the planetarium; 3 in the hall with games, pictures, stories, expositions, etc; 1 photographer; 1 field manager (visits with the local authorities, teacher, parents, etc). Some queuing at the telescope and the planetarium is inevitable, but we make it less tiresome by creating activities for those queuing or just engaging in conversation with them.

As one of the main purposes of the star party is to gather information for us to build a profile of children in various parts of Indonesia, it is important that during our interaction with them (through activities, conversation, etc), their inner ideas, needs and wishes would be revealed, and that we could perceive them in the best possible manner.

The resulting profile is essential in gauging future program as such that it would be more rigorous and more perceptive and thus closer to the mission of UNAWE.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I deeply thank my friends in the UNAWE Indonesia Team for their dedication, their generosity with their time and energy. I thank George Miley for his wonderful vision. I thank Jan Visser and Charlotte Thompson for insightful discussions on education. For various supports I am thankful to ¨ Carolina Odman, all friends in UNAWE International, the Leids Kerkhoven Bosscha Fonds, Fitri Arbi, and Nicolette Brata-Coolen of the Bandung International School.

c 2008 APRIM, 1–2 !