Presenting UNAWE (November 2008)

Universe Awareness

contact: carolina.odman@unawe.org

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

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

Autonomy Identity

Physics for skills Self-esteem

Morality Foundation of culture

Judgement Recognition of cultural
& individual differences
UNAWE

Appearance to others

Science Education

Source: Astronet Report 2008


Ingredients of UNAWE
• Materials
– Activities, Hands-on materials
developed, sourced and
disseminated 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 existing
programmes: 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

100 hours of Galileo Developing
Galileoscope Teacher Training Astronomy
Astronomy
Programme Globally

“Children’s hour”? Part of the Primary level UNAWE contributes to
Event coordination Universe in a Box activities, training astronomy development
From Earth to
High Quality Images to the Universe
distribute to children?

UNAWE UNAWE increases awareness
of astronomy cultural heritage
Astronomy &
Role models for For children who want to Meta-information UNAWE promotes participation
World Heritage
young girls? become astronomers for education? in e.g. Globe at Night

She is an Portal to the Dark Skies
Cosmic Diary
astronomer Universe Awareness

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 and
internationally
– 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 for
UNAWE
– put teams in touch with other UNAWE groups who wish to organise
a 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 your
project?
• What form of support are you requesting and how much
does 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
Home 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.

About Here you can detail your national structure for UNAWE, where you are
UNAWE operating, etc.

Projects This is where you describe your projects

Materials Here you can put you materials and activities, and describe those you
cannot put on the website directly.

News Write news so that people see what is happening.
For a calendar, see below.

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

Contact Give people your contact details: postal address, telephone and fax
numbers, email address.


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 awareness
and 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: carolina.odman@unawe.org


Presenting UNAWE (November 2008)

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Presenting UNAWE (November 2008)

Similar to Presenting UNAWE (November 2008) (20)

More from unawe

More from unawe (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Presenting UNAWE (November 2008)