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Mercury, July/August 1996 Table of Contents

by Shirin Haque-Copilah, University of the West Indies

(c) 1996 Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Shortly after the Shoemaker-Levy comet impacts in 1994, Trinidadian educators did a survey and found that their island is teeming with young minds yearning to learn about astronomy -- if only someone would teach them.

In the darkness of the night, if you peered down at the islands of the Caribbean, they would look like some uncharted constellation -- at the south end of which is Trinidad. Trinidad is one of the largest islands in the Caribbean, with a population of 1.3 million -- land of calypso, limbo, and the lonely astronomer.

Astronomy has not been a priority of science education in Trinidad. The subject is not formally taught in schools. In general, our science education places greater emphasis on theory than on experiment. Many students have little exposure to hands-on activities, and science fairs are uncommon. Schools are geared toward preparing students for national exams at ages 11, 16, and 18.

Despite all this, interest in astronomy is high. In fall 1994, my students and I at the University of the West Indies performed a survey to assess the appeal of astronomy to high-school students. Of the 435 teen-agers in the survey, 65 percent said they were very much interested in astronomy and would like to pursue it further. Interest was as strong among the young women as among the young men.

More than 50 percent of the students answered more than half of our astronomy questions correctly. Television seemed to be their main source of information. Science-option students fared a little better than their non-science counterparts. Males and females performed equally well. Apparently, there is little gender bias at this stage.

We cannot say the same at the university, where women make up fewer than half the students in most physics courses, and only 15 percent of the physical-science department staff. Even down in the Caribbean, interest and performance in astronomy and other natural sciences are affected by social norms, which channel our career choices in certain directions.

Our investigations also revealed that students held misconceived notions about astronomy and astrology. The same is true of adult Trinidadians. Most astronomical questions the university receives from the general public have their basis in astrology. People are often interested in planetary positions and eclipse occurrences so as to determine the effect on their lives.

A surprising 52 percent of our survey respondents wanted to be astronauts or astronomers. (They are obviously not aware of the job market.) I believe their enthusiasm hints at the fascination astronomy holds for young minds in Trinidad, as elsewhere. We turn to the heavens with hope; our minds can soar to infinity in the limitless night sky. This longing is stronger when we are young, when all things feel possible and there is no need to be marketable. Sadly, our educational system in Trinidad does not give avenue to these curious minds.

At the undergraduate level, the Department of Physics does offer one general astronomy course. It is an astronomical feat to cover the field, all the way from telescopes to cosmology, in 25 lectures. Laboratory exercises are confined to working with manuals, something we hope to change soon by migrating to computer labs. Two to four final-year students undertake research projects in astronomy every year. Because we have no observatories, the research is confined to pen, paper, and computers in the areas of large-scale structure and quasars. Over the past 10 years, the maximum number of graduate students in astronomy at any given time has been two. And when one astronomer left the department in 1994, the astronomy staff was cut by 50 percent.

Visiting astronomers are few; we are lucky to have one a year. Mauri Valtonen from Finland has been visiting regularly in the past few years, giving talks and collaborating on projects.

For the interested layperson, there is an active Trinidad and Tobago Astronomical Society established in 1966 as a result of an astronomy talk given by Maura Imbert to the extramural department of the university. The department offered to donate a 12 1/2-inch Newtonian telescope if Imbert would help to form a society. Now the society also owns four telescopes donated by the Canadian High Commission: two 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrains and two 4-inch portables. Many of the 100 registered members of the society have their own telescopes. In the year of Halley's last return, the membership reached an all-time high of 286 members. There is nothing like a comet to promote public interest in astronomy.

The society meets once a month, climbing atop the crop- science building to gaze starry-eyed through the telescopes. The members then come back down to earth to indulge in a lecture, discussion, or slide show. On an average night, about 30 people attend, aged 8 to 80. The society has organized debates among high-school students, taught 'O'-Level astronomy in schools, and published a book, Tropical Skies. The president of the society writes a weekly column in the children's section of the daily newspapers.

Trinidad has an oil-based economy and, with falling oil prices, the government has made cutbacks in university education. Ten years ago, local students paid no tuition; now tuition rises every year. In recent years, the university has received a boost from the Inter-American Development Bank. This has led to upgrading of the campus, and astronomy has managed to sneak in its share of requests. Our aim has been to improve teaching and keep pace with technological change, while making the academic programs more relevant to the needs of the region. Although the progress may be slow and the funds low, the canopy overhead compels us to boldly go where all men and women are already heading.

SHIRIN HAQUE-COPILAH is a lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad. She is currently spending a year with the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, on a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank. Her email address at Virginia is sth2d@virginia.edu; in Trinidad, haqc0019@centre1.uwi.tt.