Return to Program page
Science Centres Webcast
Space Observation: Past, Present and Future
Organised by the Association of Science-Technology Centre, Washington, DC, USA
Date: 2 April 2009
Starting Time: 1.00pm EDT (17:00 UTC)
Duration: 90 minutes
Science centres around the world will discuss the importance of space observation throughout history.
Science Centres Taking Part
- MTN Science Centre in Cape Town, South Africa
- The South African Astronomical Observatory
- "Ellinogermaniki Agogi" in Greece
- Armagh Planetarium in Ireland
- Hamburg Planetarium, Germany
Topics
- From Philadelphia Prof. Paolo Galluzzi, Director of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy, will describe Galileo's importance and what recent research tells us about the instrument he used.
- From South Africa - A discussion of naked eye observations of the sky and the knowledge systems of indigenous peoples. Prior to this webcast, there will be a session on Starlore in South Africa for young children 6 to 10 years of age. The session will include picture drawing and story telling.
- From Hamburg Germany, we will learn why observatories and telescopes were so important to the economic evolution of our modern society, espeically for Port Cities around the world. A live demonstration will show how precision tools based on special telescopes have enormously improved our reference frames and grids of space and time (Positional Astronomy, Reference Catalogues and Navigation).
- From Greece - Greek participants will present the COSMOS project www.cosmos-project.eu, a unique resource for astronomy education that offers access to numerous educational materials, animations, 3D representations and simulations, teachers resources and astronomical data (pictures from astronomical objects and phenomena). Students from Ellinogermaniki Agogi School will calculate how long a day lasts on Jupiter using a series of pictures of the planet and will measure the displacement of the Large Red Spot in Jupiters atmosphere. The final event from Greece will take place with the Skinakas Research Team as they demonstrate how the 1.2m robotic telescope at the observatory can be used for educational purposes and will give the opportunity to students to preform their own observations using the web-interface of the telescope.
- Armagh Planetarium in Ireland, in association with staff and students from two special needs schools in their area, will examine the mechanisms of meteorite impacts. Meteorite impacts and catastrophic occurrences on earth from space debris will be discussed also. Through a special grant from the IYA 2009 project fund, members of the Astrogazers Clubs in Northern Ireland have been given telescopes. Members of these groups will discuss how they use their telescope to observe the night sky.
- Hamburg Planetarium will demonstrate the power and beauty of a '3D-virtual telescope" allowing us all to visualise and compare data from real telescopes in a 3 dimensional model of the observable Universe. In 'real time' we will fly through space and time from our very own Milky Way Galaxy out toward the Early Universe.
Webcast Format
- Participating sites will show a scientific presentation followed by an activity for youngsters that illustrates the lesson.
- Speakers, along with educational materials linked to their presentations, will be available on the Association of Science and Technology Centres (ASTC) web site in advance of the event.
- The video conference will be streamed live on the web.
- A chat box will be available for questions for the presenters.
- The webcast will be archived and available for viewing immediately afterward.
How Science Centres Can Use The Webcast In Their Own Events
Contact: Walter Staveloz,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Return to Progam page
|
|
Last Updated on Thursday, 26 March 2009 03:21 |
