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Universe Awareness meeting Armagh Observatory November 22, 2006

ORGANISERS
Mark Bailey and Simon Jeffer y, Ar magh Obser vator y

PRESENT
Michael Grehan, Dublin Sean McCabe, Dublin Norbert McCabe, C o. Meath Leanne Y oung, NUI Maynooth Brian Espey, Trinity C ollege Dublin Rachel Ryan, Trinity C ollege Dublin Tom Mason, Armagh Planetarium Julie Thompson, Ar magh Planetarium Colin Johnston, Ar magh P lanetarium Naomi Francey, Armagh Planetarium Paul O'Neill, Armagh Planetarium Mark Bailey, Armagh Observatory Simon Jeffery, Armagh Observatory Mar tin Murphy, Ar magh Observatory Geoff C ox head, Ar magh Obser vator y Rhona Maclean, Ar magh Obser vatory David P Иr ez-SuАr ez, Armagh Observatory Timur Sahin, Ar magh Observatory Tobias Hinse, Ar magh Observator y Srividya Subramanian, Ar magh Obser vator y Anthony Moraghan, Ar magh Observator y Caroline P er eira, Ar magh Observator y Prakash Atr eya, Ar magh Observator y Amir Ahmad, Ar magh Observatory Carolina жdman, Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands. 1


INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the meeting was to present Univer se Awar eness ( UNAWE) to repr esentatives of the Irish astronomy a nd education communities. This was followed by a general discussion aimed at motivating a gr oup of enthusiasts to try to develop an Irish Universe Awar eness pr ogramme. The meeting pr oved successful with participants from both the Republic and Norther n Ir eland. It is hoped that this will lead to another meeting in 200 7 to devise a pr oject development plan in view of implementing UNAWE in 2009, the International Year of Astr onomy.

Some participants at the e ntrance of the ne wly re-ope ned Armagh Planetarium

PROGRAMME
11.00 ­ 11.30 11.30 ­ 11.45 11.45 ­ 12.45 13.00 ­ 14.00 14.00 ­ 14.45 Dining r oom Library Library Dining Room Ar magh Planetarium Coffee Welcome and Intr oduction Mark Bailey Presentation of Universe Awar eness Carolina жdman ( UNAWE Pr oject manager) Lu n c h Presentation of the new planetarium Julie Thompson Tour of the ex hibition halls T om Ma son Tour of the Astr opark and Human Orrer y Mark Bailey and Simon Jeffer y Gener al discussion on UNAWE Ireland Tea

14.45 ­ 15.15 15.15 ­ 16.00 16.00 ­ 16.30

Astr opark Library Dining Room

DISCUSSION
The presentation ended with suggested questions to think about for UNAWE Ireland, some of which ar e listed below. Not all questions could be addr essed in such a shor t time. Useful comments and recommendations for the next steps in the development of UNAWE Ir eland were reached. The pr esentation can be downloaded on the Universe Awareness website at the following addr ess: http://www.unawe.org/files/unawe_armagh.pdf (27 MB) A list of r eflection points can be found in the appendix.

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Who ar e the childr en who would benefit the most fr om UNAWE (location, cultural back gr ound, language, learning envir onment, family str uctur e, rural/urban, etc.)? Two gr oups of underprivileged childr en wer e identified. 1. Rural ar eas are too r emote for childr en to have access to lar ge facilities such as Ar magh Planetarium. Universe Awar eness would have to r each out to those children. Any extra-curricular activity requires dedicated par ents, and teacher s often do not have the budget to organise school ex peditions. It was mentioned that parents in r ural setting most lik ely ar e in possession of binoculars. UNAWE would work best if families ar e involved. Regional afterschool activities could be or ganised. Such events ar e usually popular with both teacher s and parents. A mobile planetarium visiting each region, and school, village or church halls, about once a year could accompany those activities. 2. In urban areas the inner city pr oblems arise; conflicts between neighbouring communities, poverty, etc. There is also a lot of light pollution, which prevents nak ed eye observations. In this case childr en would benefit fr om going out of the city after some preparatory activities. Existing pr ogrammes were mentioned, which could be the vehicle of UNAWE activities in this envir onment (see below) . The issue of reducing light pollution aligns closely with those of minimizing unnecessar y ener gy usage and impr oving the urban built environment, two k ey areas of government policy associated with UK and EU sustainability development plans. In both envir onments UNAWE activities could be organised on school premises but outside school hour s. After-school pr ogrammes are less for mal and curriculum-driven and also align with recent UK gover nment initiatives (see, for example, the summary pr ovided at: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/supportingcharities/esi.asp) .

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What material captures their attention? During the discussion about materials a number of ideas for toys and activities were suggested (observing exercises with the moon, colouring in book s, constellation box es, etc.). One important aspect of any material is its interactivity. It is cr ucial that materials enter tain and engage children actively. Interactivity is a way to reach children who are already (passively) overloaded with infor mation. An important point is that young children prefer simple materials that can fulfil several functions. They get easily bor ed with finished manufactur ed toys that do only one thing. It is important to follow-up on UNAWE activities. Astr onomical events can be used for that. C hanges in the appearance of the moon are easy to observe in rur al ar eas and feasible in an urban setting. Each

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year there ar e sever al observable events that could be ex ploited to reinforce the UNAWE message. In case of observations, pr ovisions must be made for cloudy skies.

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Who should we involve and how? Educator s/teachers/families/parents/teenagers Enthusiasm, interest, time, incentives? The idea of work pack s for teacher s is usually popular but in the case of an inspirational pr ogramme teachers ar e often limited by curricular requirements and perfor mance. On the other hand, UNAWE could be included in Ar t classes for example. Teacher s of creative classes ar e always happy to find new themes to work on, and bridging the gap between science and art is a perennial favourite. The involvement of families in r ural envir onments was re-emphasised. In inner cities peer lear ning often plays an important role in disadvantaged communities. It was suggested that teenager s could be involved in the delivery of the pr ogramme.

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What r elated pr ogrammes exist in Ir eland already and what do they do? o Armagh Planetarium Ar magh Planetarium work s all over Ireland. They travel with a por table planetarium and welcome visitor s in Ar magh for various events such as the astr ogazer s' evenings Contact: Tom Mason, Julie Thompson, Robert Hill website: http://www.ar maghplanet.com/ Armagh Observatory The Ar magh Observatory Gr ounds and Astropark include scale models of the solar system and the Univer se, two sundials and historic telescopes and telescope domes and other outdoor ex hibits. The Ar magh Human Orrer y is a new facility located close to the main building of the modern Observatory. The Gr ounds and Astr opark ar e open all year r ound; gr oup tours of the Obser vator y, Gr ounds and Astr opark can be arranged by appointment. Contact: J. McFarland (Tel: 028-3752-2928; E-mail: jmf@arm.ac.uk) website: http://star .ar m.ac.uk/ and http://climate.arm.ac.uk/ iSCAN Irish Science Centres Awareness Network. iSC AN was set up in 1997 to promote co-operation and collaboration between organisations and individuals that share the common aim of fostering public under standing of science and technology in Ir eland. They hold regular meetings and pr omote travelling exhibitions. Contact: Eoin Gill, Robert Hill, Tom Mason website: http://www.iscan.ie/

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IFA S

The Irish Federation of Astronomy Societies.

Ther e are many very active gr oups of amateur astr onomers thr oughout the island of Ireland, including gr oups such as the Irish Astr onomical Society, the Irish Astronomical Association, Astr onomy Ireland, the East Antrim Astr onomical Society and the South Dublin Astr onomy Society, among many others. website: http://www.irishastr onomy.or g/ o Exploration Station Exploration Station will be part of the Irish Children's Museum in Dublin. It will be a purpose-built interactive lear ning centr e on the sciences. The project is being built with funding fr om the Ministry of Arts, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. One of Ex ploration Station's core goals is to pr ovide the opportunity for children to explor e and discover Science, History, C ultur e and the Arts. Contact: Jane Jerry, Ex ecutive Dir ector o Birr Castle Birr Castle is located in C o. Offaly. It belongs to a family with a long histor y in science. In order to pr eserve this heritage a historic Science centr e was for med. website: http://www.birrcastle.com/ o IoPI Institute of Physics, in Ireland The Institute of P hysics in Ir eland is the pr ofessional body for the advancement of physics and physics education on the island. They have a network of teachers with thr ee co-ordinator s and a schools affiliation scheme. website: http://ireland.iop.or g/ Other - Ther e are Science C ommunication Graduate courses for example at DC U and NUI Maynooth. - Star parties are or ganised by various amateur clubs across the island. - Discovery 2006 is a travelling interactive science ex hibition. - IT C olleges (Institutes of Technology) ar e ver y active in the field of Science Education - Lab in a Lorr y is designed to inspir e the next generation of scientists and engineers. It offers 11-14 year olds the opportunity to explore science thr ough specially cr eated interactive ex periments. - Fun physics experiments have been developed at NUI Maynooth for disadvantaged children - "Science on Stage" Ireland is based in Dublin. website: http://ireland.iop.or g/sos/index.html

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The UK part of the Eur opean Hands-on Universe (EU-HOU) is or ganised by Ar magh Planetarium website: http://www.uk.euhou.net/ Dunsink Observator y is DIAS' outr each facility website: http://www.dias.ie/index.php? section=cosmic&subsection= dunsink_ obs&school=astrophysics Other mentioned or ganisations include Astr onomy Ir eland, the Royal Irish Academy, Astr onomy Societies Ther e was mention of holiday camps for underprivileged childr en in inner cities. Those camps consist of a weeklong trip to another county in Ireland with various accompanied activities, of which UNAWE could be one. This would be a short activity but the impact of a holiday camp is gr eater than that of an event taking place at home.

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Funding r emark s Various r emark s wer e made on funding possibilities, priorities and limitations. Projects often need to specify a " tar get area" in order to obtain funding. Funding for UNAWE could be argued as a sor t of compensation for the fact that there is no astr onomy at all in the primar y school curriculum.

Futur e UNAWE activities in Ir eland All participants at the meeting expr essed the intention of talking about UNAWE ar ound them so that everyone who might want to be involved hears about it. It is hoped that a meeting can be organised in the first few months of 2007 to set up an I rish action group for UNAWE and a development strategy for a 2009 implementation. In order to obtain suppor t for UNAWE we need to demonstrate the idea of Univer se Awareness in practice. We also need one or mor e people with connections in various governmental institutions to act as champions for the programme. Finally we need a gr oup of enthusiasts with diver se back grounds for the practical aspects of the pr ogramme development phase. Sean McC abe has prepar ed a pilot activity consisting of four lesson plans for an infant class in Dublin. The class activities will be followed by a supervised visit to Armagh Observatory. This will be filmed for further reference. The project has the backing of UNAWE and of Armagh Obser vator y and will serve as demonstration of UNAWE.

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Appendix List of points to think about in view of setting up UNAWE in Ir eland. Structure · Is passive/active support fr om the authorities likely? · Is it better to aim for for mal or infor mal education systems? · Are ther e synergetic pr ogrammes to work with in joint ventures? · Are ther e specific r equir ements for the training of co-or dinators? · Are ther e potential sources of funding that could be approached to support UNAWE in Ir eland? National Action Committee / Group · Collect back ground infor mation and feedback to ensur e adapted programme · Project plan for implementation · People, places, best practice, budget, funding possibilities, etc. · Organise national pilot activities (teachers) · Participate in International pilot activities · Person to champion funding applications and give political support Be · · · · · nefits of international collaboration Twinning between childr en but also teachers Networking, ex change & showcase of ideas 2009 Inter national Y ear of Astronomy Global events and pr ojects E U F u n d i n g i n F P 7?

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