Presenting UNAWE (November 2008)

Universe Awareness for Young Children http://www.unawe.org/

Universe Awareness

contact: [email protected]


What is Universe Awareness?

• Expose very young (4 - 10 years), underprivileged

children to inspirational aspects of astronomy

• Broaden young formative minds

• Awaken curiosity in science

• Stimulate world citizenship


UNAWE : Why work with the youngest children?

UNAWE

Autonomy

Physics for skills

Morality

Judgement

Identity

Self-esteem

Foundation of culture

Recognition of cultural

& individual differences

Appearance to others

Science Education

Source: Astronet Report 2008

Fraction of pupils exposed to astronomy at school(24 European countries. Normalised by country, not population)


Ingredients of UNAWE

• Materials

– Activities, Hands-on materialsdeveloped, sourced anddisseminated across the network

– Children’s books, Cartoons,Posters professionally developed

– Translated into various languages

• Training– Coordinators in each country

– Tailored to each community

• International Network– Platform for outreach professionals and

volunteers worldwide

– Exchange of ideas, experience and materials


UNAWE Community Building

• Bottom-up approach

• Community driven– Programmes

– Materials and activities

• Implicit quality assurance from usage and evolution of activities

• Maximise interfaces with existingprogrammes: UNAWE brings– New approach to astronomy education

– New target audience

– Social goals

– International Network


Appreciation of Cultural Diversity

• Constellations

• Skypecasts

– Cultural exchange

– Crossing boundaries

– Commonality of the sky

• Young children in immigrant

populations

– Identification

– Appreciation of difference


Astronomy Heritage

Mexico, Chichen Itza

ESO 1998


UNAWE International experiences


A picture of UNAWE


Active UNAWE groups (as of May 2008)

Indonesia, India, Kenya, South Africa, Tunisia,

Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium,

United Kingdom, Ireland, Bermuda, Venezuela,

Colombia, Chile


UNAWE and the other IYA2009 cornerstones

She is anastronomer

Cosmic Diary Portal to theUniverse

Dark Skies

Awareness

Astronomy &World Heritage

From Earth tothe Universe

100 hours ofAstronomy

Developing

Astronomy

Globally

Galileo

Teacher Training

Programme

Galileoscope

“Children’s hour”?Event coordination

Part of theUniverse in a Box

Primary levelactivities, training

UNAWE contributes toastronomy development

UUNNAAWWEE

High Quality Images todistribute to children?

UNAWE increases awarenessof astronomy cultural heritage

Role models foryoung girls?

For children who want tobecome astronomers

Meta-informationfor education?

UNAWE promotes participationin e.g. Globe at Night

http://astronomy2009.org/ > Cornerstone Projects > Universe Awareness


Universe Awareness: Astronomy for Peace

• UNAWE uses Astronomy to transmit

– Appreciation of diversity => Value systems

– Critical thinking => Cognitive development

– Global Citizenship => Identification in Global Society

– Human context of science

• Impact on children’s value system

• Feasible in all environments


How to join UNAWE ?

http://www.unawe.org/join

• UNAWE Project plan

• UNAWE Project report

• UANWE Country Planning

• Sponsorship Request letter guidelines

• UNAWE Template website


UNAWE Project Plan

• Initial brainstorm: Who, What, When, How?

• Goal setting (e.g. run a primary school training session)

• Project plan framework:– Goal

– Expected impact

– Timeline

– List of Actions & their impact

– Human resources

– Material resources

– Documentation and evaluation

– Budget

– Notes


UNAWE Project report: Goal

• compare the outcome of a project with its

objectives

• identify the successes for further projects,

fundraising and communication

• identify and record the challenges faced, the

solutions found, and the unsolved problems

• serve as a reference for further projects


UNAWE Project report: Use

• UNAWE organisers:– keep a record of achievements and experiences

– share the experience with other members of UNAWE nationally andinternationally

– communicate results to sponsors and supporters

– support further fundraising efforts

• UNAWE International Office:– promote and advertise people’s activities across the UNAWE

network, on the international website and in any communication

– show the community’s achievements when seeking support forUNAWE

– put teams in touch with other UNAWE groups who wish to organisea similar action and who could to benefit from the experience


UNAWE Country Planning

• Organisation of a national UNAWE programme

• Brainstorm:– Target population

– Existing structures

– Governance

– Implementation

– Challenges

• Vision: What would you like to offer to the children

of your country?

• Objectives: How to achieve the vision?


UNAWE

Country Planning:

possible national

structure

If useful: not a

requirement to

join UNAWE, but

can be useful to

coordinate efforts

on a national

scale.


UNAWE Project Sponsorship request guidelines

• Make a personal contact

• Who are you and why should they be interested?

• What is the expected impact of your project?

• What is the expected visibility and sustainability of yourproject?

• What form of support are you requesting and how muchdoes it cost?

• Describe the visibility of the sponsorship

• Describe the usability of the sponsorship

• Emphasise your availability for further discussion.

• Enclose relevant information in your letter

• Follow-up


UNAWE Template Website

Give people your contact details: postal address, telephone and fax

numbers, email address.

Contact

Give information on how people can support your efforts.Support us

Write news so that people see what is happening.

For a calendar, see below.

News

Here you can put you materials and activities, and describe those you

cannot put on the website directly.

Materials

This is where you describe your projectsProjects

Here you can detail your national structure for UNAWE, where you are

operating, etc.

About

UNAWE

This should be a welcome page saying what UNAWE is, and what

UNAWE is in your country. This is a good place to say who supports

UNAWE in your country.

Home


UNAWE Template Website and Communication

• http://www.unawe.org/unawe/ :online version of template– Requires basic understanding of HTML

– Manual included

• Email lists– We can provide email lists @unawe.org

– Google groups, Yahoo groups

– Facebook, etc.

– See http://tinyurl.com/unawe-email-lists

• Calendars– Join our public Google Calendar:

http://tinyurl.com/unawe-google-calendar


UNAWE Toolkit evolution

• Documents will be adapted according to usage:– Please send us your feedback

• To come: Evaluation guidelines how-to– Record numbers, etc,

– Collect data:

• Take pictures, films, collect testimonies, children’s art and creations,anecdotal evidence, feedback

– Evaluation planning (before/after, formalised feedback, etc.)

– Designed to identify the impact of UNAWE on children’s awarenessand attitudes

• Towards science and astronomy in particular

• Towards each other

• Their creativity, interests and enthusiasm


UNAWE : Everyone can join, Everyone can do it

Essentially any astronomy outreach activity that

• Targets 4-10 year olds

• Is inspirational

• Reaches out to the underprivileged

• Acknowledges and includes cultural & folkloric

astronomy

is a UNAWE activity


UNAWE : Everyone can join, Everyone can do it

• Materials and Activities on the website (growing)

http://www.unawe.org/

• UNAWE en Español

http://www.csic.es/unawe/

• All we ask for is:

– Send us your requests

– Send us feedback


Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads

us from this world to another.

Plato

Contact: [email protected]