Universe Awareness for Young Children
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Other Astronomical News Universe Awareness for Young Children George Miley1 verse in later years. Secondly, the educa- introduce the concept of the Sun, the Claus Madsen2 tional disparities between advantaged Solar System, stars and galaxies. Through Cecilia Scorza de Appl 3 and disadvantaged children are smallest excitement, adventure and wonder, for the youngest children. children will be stimulated to appreciate 1 Leiden University the beauty and enormity of the Universe. 2 ESO 3 University of Heidelberg ESO workshop Young disadvantaged children live in diverse environments. For example, the Following the setting up of an ad-hoc educational infrastructure for disadvan- Universe Awareness (UNA) is an inter- UNA steering committee in 2004, a work- taged children in the inner cities of Euro- national programme that will expose shop was held at ESO Headquarters on pean countries is qualitatively different economically-disadvantaged young chil- May 27 and 28, 2005 to discuss the from the situation for disadvantaged chil- dren, between ages 4 and 10 years, in feasibility of the Universe Awareness idea. dren in an agricultural African village. developed and developing countries to The 16 participants from 14 countries in UNA will therefore initially develop, imple- the inspirational aspects of modern as- 5 continents included professional astron- ment and evaluate a pilot project in a tronomy. omers, educators, scientific outreach pro- small number of countries representative fessionals and a social anthropologist. of the following three different educational The participants were unanimously enthu- environments: Introduction siastic about Universe Awareness as (i) Environment 1: an idea and about the feasibility of devel- – School starting at age 7–8 or non-exis- From the dawn of history, the beauty of oping it into a useful programme. At tent; the sky and its intimate connection with the workshop two sub-committees were – Television scarce. the development of human civilisation formed to follow up on detailed aspects (ii) Environment 2: have inspired countless generations with of the project. The first is studying educa- – School starting at age 6–7; a sense of wonder. Modern astronomy tional aspects of Universe Awareness, – Sporadic access to Internet; continues to play a unique role in convey- including the content of the programme – Television at home and at school; ing the excitement of science to the and the optimum didactic methods for – Poorly trained teachers. general public. In recent years consider- delivering it. The second sub-committee is (iii) Environment 3: able resources have been devoted to focusing on questions of organisation and – School starting at age 4–5; astronomical outreach in developed coun- funding. – Access to Internet at school and often tries, aided by the spectacular images at home; produced by modern astronomical facili- – Well-trained teachers; ties and the continuing list of major as- The project – UNA accepted as in-school curriculum. tronomical discoveries that have changed our views of the Universe. Universe UNA is intended to be a programme that For each environment a phased, coordi- Awareness is a new programme intended is inspirational and entertaining rather nated modular programme will be pre- to reach a target group that has so far than to impart facts or develop specific pared and training courses will be devel- been neglected by such outreach pro- cognitive skills. The minimum goal will oped, all specifically tailored to fit the grammes, namely children between four be to make young children aware of the culture and language of the target group. and ten years of age. beauty and scale of the Universe. It also carries the implicit message that Nature The programme is motivated by the can be interrogated by rational means. Tools and methods premise that access to simple knowledge The tools and methods of UNA will be about the Universe is a basic birthright developed with the aim of eventually Where very young children do not attend of everybody. The formative ages of four reaching as large a number of children as school (Environment 1), creative appeal- to ten years are crucial in the develop- possible. The development and imple- ing materials will be developed for distri- ment of a human value system. This is mentation of UNA will be driven by the bution by any available delivery method also the age range in which children can needs and wishes of active educators in (e.g. national television or travelling UNA readily appreciate and enjoy the beauty the target countries, combining the in- buses). For Environments 2 and 3, the of astronomical objects and can learn to novative use of professionally developed programme will provide teachers with ma- develop a “feeling” for the vastness of tools, including songs, games, toys and terials that involve children more actively. the Universe. Exposing young children to animation films in a coordinated modular such material is likely to broaden their programme. Several short films will be developed to minds and stimulate their world-view. illustrate the two aspects of Universe The UNA programme will begin with Awareness, beauty and scale and gradu- The programme concentrates on disad- “Earth Awareness”, emphasising that the ally make children aware of the Earth, vantaged young children for two reasons. child is a member of a diverse human the Solar System and the Universe. The Firstly, most other children will be ex- family of children living on a particu- films will be designed to appeal to young posed to some knowledge about the Uni- lar planet. Universe Awareness will then children by entertaining them. They will 66 The Messenger 121 – September 2005 From the UNA workshop at ESO Headquarters. O Present Organisation of Universe Awareness S E , r e y e H . H Universe Awareness International . H Steering Committee : o t o h P Co-Chairpersons: Mr. Claus Madsen, Head of the Public Affairs Department, ESO, Garching, Germany Prof. George K. Miley, Royal Netherlands Academy Professor, Leiden University, the Netherlands Dr. Cecilia Scorza de Appl, Landessternwarte Heidelberg, Germany Prof. Alec Boksenberg, Chairman, UK National Commission for UNESCO, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, United Kingdom Ms. Alexa Joyce, International Programme Coor- dinator, European Schoolnet, Brussels Belgium UNA Project Manager Coordinator make use of cartoon characters, anima- example, children would learn from each (from September 15, 2005): Dr. Carolina Ödman, Leiden University, tion and exciting adventure stories. These other that developing countries are often the Netherlands films will be made by experienced makers “richer” in sources of UNA wonderment of children’s entertainment films and than developed ones. For example, skies creative educators, with advice provided in agricultural regions are generally darker Universe Awareness Education Sub-Committee by astronomers. The adventures, featur- and less polluted by light, so that children Chairperson: ing some of the most beautiful images can count much larger numbers of stars. Dr. Cecilia Scorza de Appl, Astronomer/Education- made by modern telescopes, will be set in alist, Landessternwarte Heidelberg, Germany a variety of exotic environments known Special attention will be devoted to opti- Mr. Gonzalo Argandona, Astronomical Outreach, to exist in the Universe. They will attempt mum methods for delivering the pro- ESO, Santiago, Chile to cultivate the sense of imagination that gramme in less developed environments. Ms. Chandra Fernando, Primary School Teacher/ is widespread in young children. Tailoring films to local needs so that they Teacher training, Northeast Montessori Institute, can be transmitted on national or local Baltimore, USA Ms. Birthe Kirknæs, Primary School Headmaster (rtd.), Additional coordinated material tailored television is one option. Another option is Copenhagen,Denmark for each country will be developed with to equip travelling UNA buses with inter- Mr. Jesper Kirknæs, Social Anthropologist, Copen- the aid of talented educators, scientists active games and exciting exhibits. Such hagen, Denmark and artists from these countries. These buses are already frequently used for Dr. Naoufel Ben Maaouia, Educator/Astronomer/Plan- etarium Director, Tunis, Tunisia will include games and songs. They educational purposes in Tunisia, travelling Mr. Bernat Martinez, CEFIRE (In-service Teacher Train- will often focus on the cartoon characters, between widely dispersed villages, stop- ing Centre), Benidorm, Spain feature UNA images and emphasise rele- ping as appropriate. Dr. Premana W. Premadi, Astronomer, Institut vant aspects of Universe Awareness. Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia Dr. Rosa M. Ros, Educator/Teacher training, Technical Where appropriate, involvement of ancient To coordinate the programme and main- University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain local cultures with astronomy will be tain links with the schools, teachers, par- Dr. Karl Sarnow, Educator, European Schoolnet, woven into the material. A goal will be to ents and children in the target countries, Brussels, Belgium stimulate active group participation by several Universe Awareness Coordinators Dr. Henri Boffin, Astronomical Outreach, ESO, Garching, Germany the children, where possible, but will also will be trained for each target country. Dr. R. West, Outreach Astronomer (rtd.), ESO, include simple board games that chil- Garching, Germany dren can play on a one-to-one basis. By including a uniform set of characters, Pilot project