We organised a regional workshop for astronomy and space science in Libreville, capital city of Gabon [in French here]. The workshop was held before the total solar eclipse, and should become a biennial school for astronomy and space science for (west) central Africa. The ambition is to develop a regional astronomy & space science research, teaching and outreach hub in central Africa with an initial focal point in Gabon. We wanted to set the ball rolling towards more advanced workshops, bi-annually, in the near future. The workshop was taught in French and consisted of compact lecture series covering basics of astronomy & space science.
The workshop aimed at two (partially overlapping) audiences:
Since the workshop preceded the November 2013 total solar eclipse, two streams of parallel activities [in French here], aimed at the large public - with an emphasis on learners/students - was also offered, namely:
More details about the workshop and these two related streams of initiatives can be found here. We were delighted to report that the project for this workshop was shortlisted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) - through their Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) - for their wishlist of projects to support in 2013.
Interestingly, as we intended to start implementing our plan early in October, there was the additional possibility to couple it with the World Space Week (4-10 October) which is a global annual event “to celebrate each year at the international level the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition”, as declared by the United National General Assembly.
Please, join in and/or blog about any meaningful way to make this initiative an additional success towards the (scientific) renaissance of Africa.
The workshop aimed at two (partially overlapping) audiences:
- relatively advanced physical/mathematical science students;
- lecturers and educators in these fields.
- for teaching and developing high school and/or undergraduate astronomy & space science courses;
- for developing didactic materials for outreach activities;
- to start/continue with further astrophysics/space science studies themselves.
Since the workshop preceded the November 2013 total solar eclipse, two streams of parallel activities [in French here], aimed at the large public - with an emphasis on learners/students - was also offered, namely:
- An exhibition about eclipses, astronomy & sciences coupled to relevant public talks/hands on activities and multimedia sessions in Libreville;
- Mobile star gazing units consisting of telescopes, galileoscopes, binoculars and solarscopes.
More details about the workshop and these two related streams of initiatives can be found here. We were delighted to report that the project for this workshop was shortlisted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) - through their Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) - for their wishlist of projects to support in 2013.
Interestingly, as we intended to start implementing our plan early in October, there was the additional possibility to couple it with the World Space Week (4-10 October) which is a global annual event “to celebrate each year at the international level the contributions of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition”, as declared by the United National General Assembly.
Please, join in and/or blog about any meaningful way to make this initiative an additional success towards the (scientific) renaissance of Africa.