GalileoMobile Special project Philippe Kobel (Max-Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung) kobel@mps.mpg.de www.galileo-mobile.org
Active Task Group number: 13 Number of people working on the project: x 13 team members (Task Group) x 3 people for the documentary (La Ventana productions + 1 external sound engineer) x 2 drivers (only during the trip) x 2 website-collaborators x x
Full-time: Part-time: Paid: Volunteers:
0 All Documentary team and drivers The rest
Budget: x Mobility (vehicles, flights): 33 000 € x Documentary: 12 000 € x Lodging and food: 13 000 € x Materials (t-shirts, stickers, activity handbooks, etc.): 5000 € x Administration (visas, insurance, vaccinations, communication, etc.): 7000 € TOTAL = 70 000 € Sources: The trip and other preparation expenses were mainly supported by our sponsors (ESO, the Max Planck Society, Max Plank Institute for Extra-Terrestrial Physics MPE, Max Plank Institute for Solar Physics MPS, Max Plank Institute for Astrophysics MPA, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics NORDITA, the Regione Molise in Italy, the Optical Society of America OSA and the Instituto de Astronomía Teórico y Experimental IATE) as well as by private donations. A lot of material was kindly donated by ESO and the IYA2009 Secretariat, like Galileoscopes, posters, stickers and these partners also helped us with the shipping and the handling of these materials. ESO and MPA lent us laptops and a beamer that were essential for the introductory talks in the schools. We also travelled with several telescopes lent to the project by the IYA2009 Secretariat.
General Overview Vision GalileoMobile is a travelling science-education project that brings astronomy closer to young people across South America. By organising hands-on activities and astronomical observations in schools and villages, we aim at fostering a will of learning through the exciting wonders of our Universe. GalileoMobile also extends its impact to a worldwide audience through the production of a documentary movie featuring the highlights of the activities and visited places. This movie wants to show the richness of the Andean cultures and cosmovisions and to be a messenger of human interaction beyond borders, of “unity under the same sky”.
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The IYA2009 experience The team is integrated mainly with students doing their PhD in Germany but also with persons that are outside of the pure astronomical background (one Journalist and one Social investigator) but shared the objectives of the IYA2009. The team members are from several nationalities of Europe and South America. In its first trip in the months of October and November 2009, the GalileoMobile team travelled across the high plateau of the Altiplano in the north of Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. This region was chosen for its antique astronomical heritage developed by the pre-Columbian Inca and Tiwanaku civilisations, and the clear night sky it offers which is ideal for astronomical observations. Moreover it was essential to travel in a region in which only one language, Spanish, is commonly used by a large part of its populations. The team travelled more than 7000 km in two vans carrying educational material and telescopes. It visited around 35 schools, in 20 different cities and villages, reaching close to 3000 children and more than 200 teachers, plus a substantial number of local people that were present in different events such as star parties for the community. At each location, the team carried out hands-on activities for the students to explain basic concepts of astronomy and physics. When possible, solar and night observations for the entire community were also organised. A Galileoscope was donated to each school together with other educational material to continue simple science activities in the future. The teachers were involved in all activities and learned with the students how to mount and use the Galileoscope.
Deliverables and follow-up GalileoMobile is also a pilot project using science education as a basis for sustainable development. To give concrete possibilities for a lasting follow-up of this project, we involved the local teachers in our activities, offered some workshops for the regional teachers (see List of Activities) and promoted the formation of teacher and student astronomy groups. We compiled all the teaching material in a handbook called “Cartilla de Actividades GalileoMobile”, which includes the instructions for the hands-on activities and the explanation of the physical phenomena studied in each of them. The handbook will be distributed in all schools visited, encouraging them to start their own activities, and helping to make the relation with our project (or other projects such as GTTP, UNAWE, etc ) more stable because of the continuous feedback. The “Cartilla de Actividades GalileoMobile” is also a corner stone and starting point to develop the GalileoMobile project all around the world. It will be freely available on our website (including print-friendly versions of this handbook, multimedia materials, and other resources) as well as on ESO’s website (fall 2010) and will be translated in English and German. Also, we will need to print a number of these handbooks to distribute them by post to the locations where there is no access to digital data. To share our experience with a worldwide public and thereby provide a global character to the project, a documentary was filmed during the entire length of the trip. The movie will stimulate curiosity for natural sciences and Universe awareness, and through the interplay and personal identification with South-American children, inspire a feeling of “unity under the same sky”. The movie will also illustrate different beliefs and ways of thinking to put in evidence the richness of human culture, and interviews will be complemented by short explanations of preColumbian history and myths.
Main Activities List of Activities x x x x x
Opening ceremony in Antofagasta University, Chile (presentation of the project in front of officials and university students followed by night-time observations) Visit to the Liceo Eleuterio Ramirez Molina in Calama, Chile (introductory talk followed by night-time observations) Visit to the Colegio adventista in Calama, Chile (introductory talk followed by night-time observations) Visit to the Liceo Agropecuario Likan Antai in San Pedro, Chile (introductory talk followed by night-time observations) Visit to the Liceo Samca Arumanti in Iquique, Chile (introductory talk and small workshop for teachers and parents)
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x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Visit to the Colegio metodista William Taylor in Alto Hospicio (provincia Iquique), Chile (introductory talk and small workshop for teachers and parents) Visit to the Liceo Técnico Profesional in Colchane, Chile (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities and solar observations) Visit to the Escuela D-66 in Cariquima, Chile (introductory talk followed by night-time observations) Visit to the Unidad Educativa Pedro Domingo Murillo in Patacamaya, Bolivia (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities and solar observations) Visit to the Unidad Educativa Rosario in La Paz, Bolivia (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities and solar observations) Visit to the Unidad Educativa Tihuanacu in Tihuanacu, Bolivia (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities and solar observations) Visit to the Unidad Educativa Juan Chalco in Moco Moco (Huatajata), Bolivia (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities and solar observations) Visit to the U.E. 6 de Junio in Copacabana, Bolivia (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities, solar observations) Night-time observations in Copacabana, Bolivia Visit to the U.E. Yumani in the Isla del Sol, Bolivia (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities, solar observations and night-time observations) Visit (two days) to the I.E.P. no 70718 Villa de Lago in Puno, Peru (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities, solar observations) Night-time observations in Puno, Peru Visit to the Colegio Hector Suana Colla in Isla Q’antati (Uros), Peru (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities, solar observations) Visit to the Institucion educativa secundaria in Anansaya, Peru (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities, solar observations) Workshop for teachers of the schools of the region of Marangani, Marangani, Peru (joint organization with SPACE) Visit to the Quenamari community (prov. Marangani), Peru (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities, solar observations and night-time observations) Workshop “Encuentro de Astronomia” for teachers and future teachers in the Instituto Superior de Pedagogia Gregoria Santos, Sicuani, Peru (joint organisation with SPACE) Visit to the Colegio Puklysunchis in Cusco, Peru (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities) Visit to the Institucion Educativa 50618 — Matilde Huamantica Espinoza in Patacancha, Peru (introductory talk and telescopic observations) Visit to the Institucion Pasa la voz in Cusco, Peru (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities) Visit to the Institucion Educativa Yanapanakusun in Cusco, Peru (introductory talk) Visit to the Escuela no 40046 José Lorenzo Cornejo Aconta in Arequipa, Peru (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities) Joint event with several regional schools in Tocopilla, Chile (introductory talk followed by hands-on activities) Closing event (for general public) in Tal Tal, Chile (poster session, presentation of project, introductory talk, night-time observations)
Visit to the village of Colchane, north Chile Colchane is a small Altiplano village in the very north of Chile near the Bolivian border. There, our local contact Mauricio organised a one-day school visit at the “Liceo Técnico Profesional Colchane”, which particularly impacted us by the quality of our reception. When we finally arrived at night after a long trip from the sea level (we left from Iquique) up to 3800 m, we were received with a beautiful surprise. In front of the church (where we were supposed to be hosted), all the kids were waiting for us in the freezing night around a huge fire. Mauricio had even prepared food and drinks as well as the projection of astronomy movies. Right away, the kids surrounded us and started asking questions, some ingenuous and some astonishingly deep: “From which planet are you coming from (obviously we were not looking local at all)? How large is the Universe? What is a comet (the movie was showing comets)? Is there life in the Universe?” etc. After a warm-up dance around the fire, we were ready to face the chilly wind with our C8 telescope to observe Jupiter. We also used a green laser to tour-guide the kids through the sky. The kids were totally amazed by the laser (which was our usual experience everywhere), all their heads following it like a wave. The night
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finally finished by some tales-telling in the tents of the kids (astronomy tales in Spanish from UNAWE “Cuentos de estrellas”).
Weaver community of Patacancha: Preparing the kids to watch the sacred mountain (Apu) through a telescope (donation to the school).
The following day we carried out several hands-on activities in the school (e.g. secure solar observations, creating a rainbow, 3D visualisation of the Sun etc.). Among others we mention a successfully improvised drawing session to express the kids’ creativity about the Cosmos and what they learned in general. Organisers: Mauricio Gonzales Coronado, director of the Liceo Técnico Profesional Colchane. Estimated number of people who attended or were reached by this activity: About 70 kids.
Visit to the Island of the Sun, Bolivia The Island of the Sun (Isla del Sol) represented a unique place for GalileoMobile to visit, both for its rural character as well as its strong symbolic aspect. According to the legend, this island is the birthplace of Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo from where they left to Cusco and found the great Inca Empire. The courtyard of the “Unidad Educativa Yumani” was big enough to have lots of students performing several activities simultaneously, and the children could easily commute from one activity to another. For this occasion we chose mainly activities focused on the Sun: observation of the Sun with telescopes equipped with ND filter (we had the chance to see a sunspot!), building paper sundials, visualisation of 3D posters of the Sun and experimenting with light and lenses. Also, our local contact Manuel de la Torre (who accompanied us throughout Bolivia) was holding a special session about the Andean astronomical traditions so that the students could learn about their own living traditions and heritage. We cannot avoid mentioning an anecdote about the “Earthball” (inflatable globe donated by UNAWE) to illustrate the excitement it generated. We gave it to a kid and as soon as he grabbed it, he started running around, hitting the ball and making it floating in the air. In fewer than 20 seconds, almost all the children were running after the
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ball, trying to hit it. It was a spontaneous explosion of happiness, laughs and joy. Everybody stopped looking to that cloud of children running after the ball. The night of observation in the school was also tainted of Andean spirit. To open the night, we invited (thanks to Manuel) a healer of the “kallawaya” group (an Andean tradition of natural medicine), who offered a ceremony to ask permission to the “Alaj Pacha” (Andean realm of the skies) and to the “Pacha Mama” (“mother Earth”). The school teachers, students and several locals were present with their children. The “star party” started with a guided tour of the sky by Manuel, showing both the “Greek” constellations as well as the Andean ones and their related stories. Some of the public had never seen a telescope before and were very excited about observing the Moon, Jupiter and some stars. They were asking questions all the time and sharing their own ancestral astronomical culture, comparing names of constellations and telling stories about them. Organisers: Prof. Manuel de la Torre (http://www.astronomiaandina.260mb.com/) and GalileoMobile. Estimated number of people who attended or were reached by this activity: about 70 kids, 20 locals and 5 teachers.
Visit to the floating islands of the Uros, Peru Thanks to our local contacts Nilda Esperanza and Luz Marina Suaquita Quispe, we had the chance to visit the Q’antati community in the floating islands of the Uros (general name of their inhabitants). These islands are totally floating (only anchored) and are built out of bulrush according to an ancient Inca tradition (some Incas were used to live on bulrush boats). Although touristic ally known, the Uros find themselves in a relatively low financial state, its inhabitants often being in the inability to afford a true piece of land. They also suffer of isolation from the ground, which makes the scholar education a problematic issue. For this reason as well as the very special cultural atmosphere of this place, the Uros was an important stop for GalileoMobile.
Island of the Uros: Inside the small bulrush school of the community, we perform our introductory activity (imaginary cosmic voyage) with posters.
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We gave our introductory talk (an interactive talk in the form of an imaginary voyage from our home to the Universe) in the small classroom of the Colegio HectorSuana Colla, itself made of bulrush. The atmosphere was particularly intimate, as we and the pupils were sitting together around a low table. Because there was no electricity, we had to illustrate our presentation using posters of the moon, planets, stars and galaxies (posters given by ESO) that we were lying on the table. Note that we were always carrying out a set of presentation posters along, as several places we visited had no electricity. To demonstrate the concept of day and night, we used the “Earthball” (an inflatable Earth globe donated by UNAWE) in front of the entrance door such that it would be half-lightened. As in many small places in the Altiplano, the kids are not used to have such kind of contacts with non-locals and are thus rather shy (especially in front of the cameras). Here is where our “Galileo doll” (our project mascot) came into the game. During the introductory talk, we were usually animating the Galileo doll to tell his own story in a theatrelike fashion (telling he is about 400 years old, that he first used the telescope to watch the stars and thus is the “grand-daddy of all astronomers”), which was always a success with the youngsters and proved very useful in front of shy audiences. Finally, we explained how to mount the Galileoscope and the general principles of how a telescope works. After the presentation we followed by a one-hour hands-on activity session. We taught how to manipulate the Galileoscope on its tripod. On the classroom table students were trying to “simulate” the formation of Saturn’s rings using pencils and salt, while outside students were figuring out how to join print-outs of the Moon surface to build a huge poster of the Moon. Secure solar observations were also made (projecting and using a ND filter), although the telescope was somehow unstable on the bulrush (we ourselves lost our equilibrium sometimes). As in all school visits, we concluded by offering the Galileoscope together with a tripod, one Earthball, postcards and posters (in this case the same ones used for the presentation such as to keep a souvenir from it). Organisers: Nilda Esperanza, Luz Marina Suaquita Quispe and GalileoMobile. Estimated number of people who attended or were reached by this activity: About 25 kids and their teacher.
Visit to a Weaver Community in the Inca Valley, Peru We visited a small Andean weaver community in the Inca’s “sacred valley” at about one hour drive away from Ollataytambo. This visit particularly fitted the spirit of GalileoMobile for its authentic cultural traditions perpetuating from generation to generation for hundreds of years. Visiting the local school was also a particular experience because in this case the contact was not arranged ahead of time. But in the view the kids playing football with colourful home-made ponchos and hats, we couldn’t help “knocking the door”. The director and teachers warmly welcomed us and immediately brought the kids together for an impromptu astronomy talk. We then gave our introductory presentation “charla inaugural”, an interactive talk in the form of an imaginary voyage from our home to the Universe (scaling up through the Moon, the Sun, the planets, the stars, galaxies etc.) Since half the classroom was purely quechua-speaking, the help of the director was crucial for translation. Whenever possible, we also probed our basics of astronomical quechua to break the ice. The presentation closes with a video of Brent Tully (http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~tully/outreach/movie.html) bringing the audience into a virtual voyage until the Virgo galaxy cluster (thus summarizing in an existing way our imaginary voyage). To make it more playful, we added background music to the video (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLwY0UW8kIw&feature=related) and distributed small A5 colour papers to all students such that they rolled it as a telescope and watched the movie through it. All these colourful “telescopes”, ponchos and hats gave the classroom a carnival look. Because of the partly improvised character of this school visit, we were short of time for hands-on activities and focused instead on telescopic observations of the surrounding mountains. The small telescope was thereafter donated to the school. Organisers: GalileoMobile and Barthelemy d’Ans (president of the “Instituto peruano de astronomia”, http://www.concytec.gob.pe/ipa/) Estimated number of people who attended or were reached by this activity: About 50 students.
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Astronomy workshop for teachers in Sicuani, Peru Especially for the venue of GalileoMobile, a three-day astronomy workshop called “Encuentros de astronomia” was organised jointly by SPACE and took place at the Instituto Superior Pedagógico “Gregoria Santos” (ISP). This workshop was dedicated both to professional teachers as well as to future teachers (students of the ISP). Being in front of a present and future generation of teachers was the opportunity for us to speak about our project experience in order to stimulate future outreach activities. Our team also gave talks about various astrophysical topics (e.g. Sun and stars, black holes) as well as about the life of Galileo Galilei. Finally, we organised secure solar observations in the courtyard (projection and direct observation using a ND filter) and as a poster session about our own school activities in order to answer questions. Besides the GalileoMobile talks and activities, the meeting also featured talks by members of the ISP as well as by SPACE.
Astronomy workshop in Sicuani: The aula of the Instituto de Pedagogia Gregoria Santos is full of teachers curious about our activities.
Both students and teachers manifested a clear desire of learning from us and the talks generally ended in a halfan-hour question-answer session. The outdoor activities (solar and poster session) also generated a high interest and gave us the opportunity of some more personal contact with the teachers and students. We exchanged many email directions with students interested to carry out future outreach projects and possibly create amateur astronomy clubs. Finally, we were particularly touched by the quality of the welcome and closure ceremony offered by the ISP. Because we felt like having left behind a growing potential and a motivation for learning and pursuing scientific outreach we considered this event as a success. Note that another two-day teacher workshop was also organised jointly with SPACE in the town of Marangani.
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Organisers: SPACE (Seminario Permanente de Astronomia y Ciencias Espaciales, www.concytec.gob.pe/space), the Instituto Superior Pedagógico “ Gregoria Santos” (ISP) and GalileoMobile. Estimated number of people who attended or were reached by this activity: Around 200 students and about 100 teachers.
Alpaca breeder community of Quenamari: Our team is being introduced to the locals by Barthelemy d’Ans (our local contact in front right).
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Island of the Sun: Around a wood gnomon, we teach the students how to mount a simple Sundial.
Visit to the Quenamari community (prov Marangani), Peru Guided by the authorities of the town of Marangani and accompanied by Maria Luisa Aguilar (IYA2009 node of Peru) and SPACE, we reached a small community of Alpaca breeders a few hours’ drive away from Marangani. Because of their quasi-total isolation, scholar education beyond primary school is a serious issue. Also, the community benefits from the help of ONG’s for its survival and for building houses. It is both this condition as well as the cultural tradition of breeding Alpaca’s that motivated us to visit the community.
We started our introductory talk (an interactive talk in the form of an imaginary voyage from our home to the Universe) after lunchtime, when most of the breeders returned from their work. This made the talk unusual in the sense that a large part of the community was present, including both children and adults. Because there was no electricity, we had to illustrate our presentation using posters of the moon, planets, stars and galaxies (posters given by ESO) at the same time that we were writing the key concepts of the talk on the blackboard. Note that we were always carrying out a set of presentation posters along, as several places we visited had no electricity. To demonstrate the concept of day and night, we used the “Earthball” (an inflatable Earth globe donated by UNAWE) in front of the window such that it would be half-lightened. In such a remote place, the children were extremely quiet and shy as they were totally unused to have such contacts with non-locals. We realised quickly that only a few were speaking Spanish, so that a member of an ONG helped us to translate our words into quechua. Our “Galileo doll” (our project mascot) also helped “breaking the ice”. During the introductory talk, we were usually animating the Galileo doll to tell his own story in a theatre-like fashion (telling he is about 400 years old, that he first used the telescope to watch the stars and thus is the “granddaddy of all astronomers”), which was always a success with the youngsters and proved very useful in front of shy audiences. Finally, we explained how to mount the Galileoscope and the general principles of how a telescope works.
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After the presentation we followed by a one-hour hands-on activity session. We taught how to manipulate the Galileoscope on its tripod, and outside the classroom, we organised secure solar observations (projecting and using a ND filter) as well as observation using an H-alpha telescope (lent by our local contact Barthelemy d’Ans). We also visualised 3D posters of the Sun and produced a rainbow using a mirror in a water flask. As in all school visits, we concluded by offering the Galileoscope together with a tripod, one Earthball, postcards and posters (in this case the same ones used for the presentation such as to keep a souvenir from it). We invited the whole community for a star party at night and we were lucky enough to have a diamond clear free of any light pollution. This made the laser-guide of the sky a successful show. Organisers: SPACE (Seminario Permanente de Astronomia y Ciencias Espaciales, www.concytec.gob.pe/space) and GalileoMobile. Estimated number of people who attended or were reached by this activity: About 30 local people.
Lessons Learned A. Team coordination and communication At any given time during the trip, only five team members were present “on the field” while the rest of the team was in Germany. We will refer to the first group as “travelling team” and to the second one as “base team”. Note that the travelling team was not fixed: a total of 11 team members integrated the travelling team for periods varying between one week to two months, thus switching roles between the travelling team and the base team. 1. Communication between the travelling team and the base team There was an important necessity to communicate between the base and the travelling team because the former was responsible of part of the logistics and trip organisation, as well as to take decisions among the entire team. However, possibilities of communication were intermittent due to often poor internet connections, the costs of phone conversations and the difference of time zones. We tried to cope with this issue as follows: x Structuring the communication: one person of the base team and of the travelling team was designated as responsible to handle the communication between the two teams. In particular, the responsible of the travelling team was sending a weekly report to the base team. x Giving priority of decision to the travelling team: When short-term decisions have to be taken, the travelling team often has the necessary “field information” and can bypass the communication with the base team in case it cannot be established. x Cell phones: We were all the time carrying with us two cell phones with local chips that could be used (although very expensive) for inter-team communication. x For future projects, a possible solution is to plan a part of the budget dedicated to cell phone communications between base team and travelling team. 2. Communication within travelling team Distributing the information among the travelling people was not an easy task. Although travelling together, they were most of the time occupied during school activities, shared in two cars, in internet cafes etc. - Every evening we carried out short briefings of the next day’s schedule. - We were holding a travelling team meeting every two to three days to discuss relevant issues of the activities, logistics etc. 3. Plan and assign the travelling team’s tasks the simplest way Time is flying on the road: there are many tasks to realise besides school activities and the travelling team also needs time to rest (which was hard to find). The people of the travelling team were often overwhelmed with many tasks of different nature, which made us think that the distribution of tasks should be simplified by identifying the most important and priority tasks. For future projects, we suggest that the main tasks should be planed and distributed to responsible persons among the travelling team (optimally one main task per head) and their delegation well prepared when commutation of people occur in the travelling team.
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For instance, for a travelling team of five members, five main tasks can be identified and distributed to one responsible for each as follows: x communication: handling communication between base and travelling team. x treasurer: managing money, keeping log of expenses. x diffusion/outreach: organising blog and collecting blog posts of team members, organising pictures. x field producer: itinerary and logistics, main communicator with drivers and local contacts, scouting of visited places. x activities: organising material of activities and checking if some items need to be bought. 4. Logistics “on the field”/ need for a “field producer” One error that we committed was to give too much weight to the base team for the logistical organisation of the trip with the pretext that they could “prepare the terrain” with more anticipation than the travelling team. However, the base team was often overloaded during the trip and the distance and difficulties of communication prevented them to react when quick decisions had to be made (for instance urgent changes in the itinerary). We think that it is good that the base team prepares the logistics of the trip in advance and serves as logistical support, but the travelling team needs one person (the field producer) to manage the road map and the logistics *in real time* in order to communicate quickly with the relevant local contacts when needed.
B. Activities During the day-time visits to schools, we were running different session of hands-on activities in parallel, while switching groups of students from one session to the next. 1. Control the time of activity-sessions Although some of our activities contained enough material to be made much longer (e.g. more explanation about physical concepts), we learned to keep the time of the activities session short. This allows students to stay entertained and no get tired when commuting from one session to the next. It should also be taken into account that many of our activities were carried out in open air, and the Sun can be really burning in the Altiplano. Another issue is to control the time of the activities sessions in order to synchronize them. This can be difficult as the various activities sessions (sometimes we carried out four sessions in parallel) are dispatched in different places or classrooms. If the activities sessions are not synchronized, they end up at different times and students easily get dispersed. Again, a responsible (within the team) is definitely needed to watched out the time, synchronize the sessions and guide the students from one session to the next. 2. Mounting the galileoscopes in front of the students We quickly noted that if we spent 20 min. to mount the galileoscope in the classroom in front of ALL the students and teachers, it tremendously increased the value of the instrument that we were offering to the school. Although it was hard for most people to see in detail the different pieces and lenses, mounting the telescope strongly raised the interest of students for observing. 3. Choose strategic places for observations. It is worth telling two experiences. Once we had the opportunity to announce on local TV two nights of observations taking place on a hill (with beautiful sky) nearby Puno...but almost nobody came. Another day in Copacabana, we improvised an observing session by bringing the telescopes on the main square and attracted hundreds of people! To reach out a large public, we strongly advice to organise the observations either in schools (for pupils, parents and friends) or on a main square of the town (if public event). It is better to prioritize ease-of-access than sky quality, as we found out that most people are in fact amazed by simple objects like the Moon and Jupiter which can be shown even with poor sky conditions. 4. Work separately with the teachers Except for the few cases where we could offer a dedicated workshop for teachers (Marangani, Sicuani), the teachers were only present to follow how we were performing the activities with the kids, mainly due to the lack of time at the schools (one day visits).
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Our feedback interviews with the schools revealed, however, that dedicating separate sessions to the teachers (explaining how to use the telescope, how to incorporate our materials in their curriculum, examples of activities etc.) is crucial to give them confidence in performing follow-up astronomical activities after our leave. This requires longer stays at the schools, as mentioned below.
C. Trip timing and logistics 1. Arrive at schools with a local contact Some rural schools can be very difficult to find, even when equipped with maps and GPS devices. Whenever possible, we recommend arriving at the schools accompanied by the local contact of the respective place, and making sure he knows where the school is located. This also ensures a smooth presentation of the team at its arrival. In case the local contact is unavailable, an alternative is to perform a careful scouting using e.g. Google Earth. 2. Cross custom borders with discretion Although one should be prepared to cross borders with all the required forms, none of these forms should be shown nor anything asked unless one is really required to (even though one is carrying lots of valuable material). Bureaucracy at customs can be a very lengthy process. In our case, we carefully prepared all the necessary paperwork: VISAs (for Bolivia), complete list of team members crossing the borders (approved by ESO), description of our project by IYA2009, letter of invitation to country (signed by node/immigration of country) etc. At the moment of crossing borders, we experienced three different scenarios. Entering to Bolivia, we passed by only showing the simplest list of material we had to answer an enquiry of the guard. Entering Chile, we were not even asked for anything. But when we wanted to declare some material at the Peruvian border and started by ourselves to show letters, we ended up caught at the border for more than one hour with high risk of not entering the country. 3. Make clear contract with paid collaborators To ensure a smooth and clear collaboration with paid co-workers, we recommend writing contracts right from the beginning with clear clauses. This clarifies what people can expect from each other. 4. Plan free social time in schools/communities after the activities In several occasions, we felt that we were missing some more social interaction with the local people in order to share their lives and cultures. For instance, due to our tight schedule, we were often caught without time at the end of school activities while kids were leaving in hurry to go home. In the observations, we were often overwhelmed with many people, giving explanations, controlling the queues etc. However, social interaction is very important for such an outreach project because at the same time it helps intensifying the scientific interaction and the attention of the kids. We thus advise to dedicate spare time in the daytime activity sessions or at the beginning of the observations for social interaction with the kids and the local people (e.g. offering foods and drinks). Also, when performing activities in rural communities prone to social interaction, plan staying overnight. Optimally, the timetable should always be flexible enough to give the possibility to stay more time/stay overnight in places where particular cultural interaction occurs. 5. Optimise activity-to-travel time ratio The GalileoMobile trip timetable was planned to optimise the number of schools and people reached. For this reason, we spent most of the “non-activity” days travelling, and only few to rest. This tight schedule not only resulted tiring for the team, but also contributed to the lack of social interaction previously mentioned. For these reasons we felt like the activity-to-travel time ratio should be slightly increased. To reduce the driving hours, a simple solution when visiting rural schools is to arrange an overnight stay there instead of driving back several hours to the locality where the team is based. Also, several schools have enough students to repeat the activities with a different group of students for a second day. This allows to increase the duration of the stay at a given school/place and thereby to reduce the number of visited schools and increase the activity-to-travel time ratio.
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D. Logistics 1. Arrive at schools with a local contact Some rural schools can be very difficult to find, even when equipped with maps and GPS devices. Whenever possible, we recommend arriving at the schools accompanied by the local contact of the respective place, and making sure he knows where the school is located. This also ensures a smooth presentation of the team at its arrival. In case the local contact is unavailable, an alternative is to perform a careful scouting using e.g. Google Earth. 2. Cross borders with discretion Although one should be prepared to cross borders with all the required forms, and even though one is carrying lots of valuable material, none of these forms should be shown nor anything asked unless one is really required to. Bureaucracy can be a very lengthy process. In our case, we carefully prepared all the necessary paperwork: VISAs (for Bolivia), complete list of team members crossing the borders (approved by ESO), description of our project by the IYA2009 and a letter of invitation to country (signed by node/immigration of country) etc. At the moment of crossing borders, we experienced three different scenarios. Entering to Bolivia, we passed by only showing the simplest list of material we had to answer an enquiry of the guard. Entering in Chile, we were not even asked for anything. But when we wanted to declare some material at the Peruvian border and started by ourselves to show letters, we ended up caught at the border for more than one hour with high risk of not entering the country. 3. Make clear contract with paid collaborators To ensure a smooth and clear collaboration with paid co-workers, we recommend writing contracts right from the beginning with clear clauses. This clarifies what people can expect from each other.
E. Trip timing 1. Stay longer (at least 2 days) in schools Most of our feedback interviews with schools converge in one point: the length of our stay at the school was not long enough to give concrete means for self-sustained activities. The kids were amazed by the visit, but were left with many doubts and questions. And in most cases the teachers did not have the means nor the formation to answer those questions and organise concrete astronomy activities after our leave. Also, staying more time would give space for more social interaction with the teachers and the pupils. 2. Plan free social time in schools/communities after the activities In several occasions, we felt that we were missing some more social interaction with the local people in order to share their lives and cultures. For instance, due to our tight schedule, we were often caught without time at the end of school activities while kids were leaving in hurry to go home. In the observations, we were often overwhelmed with many people, giving explanations, controlling the queues etc. However, social interaction is very important in such an outreach project because at the same time it helps intensifying the scientific interaction and the attention of the kids. We thus advise to dedicate spare time in the daytime activity sessions or at the beginning of the observations for social interaction with the kids and the local people (possibly offering foods and drinks). Also, when performing activities in rural communities prone to social interaction, plan staying overnight. Optimally, the timetable should always be flexible enough to give the possibility to stay more time/stay overnight in places where particular cultural interaction occurs. 3. Optimize activity-to-travel time ratio The GalileoMobile trip timetable was planned to optimize the number of schools and people reached. For this reason, we spent most of the “non-activity” days travelling, and only few to rest. This tight schedule not only resulted tiring for the team, but also contributed to the lack of social interaction previously mentioned and
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hampered deeper work to prepare follow-up activities (see F). For these reasons we felt like the activity-to-travel time ratio should be slightly increased. To reduce the driving hours, a simple solution when visiting rural schools is to arrange an overnight stay there instead of driving back several hours to the locality where the team is based. This allows to increase the duration of the stay at a given school/place and thereby to increase the activity-to-travel time ratio.
F. Follow-Up 1. Register the data of all visited schools We prepared forms to be filled out in each school in order to register the name of the director and science teacher, the number of children, number of teachers, the activities carried out and the materials that had been donated. These data proved very useful not only to keep contact with schools, but mostly to analyze them a posteriori. 2. Prepare the teachers for follow-up activities For next trips we should dedicate specific training sessions to the teachers to answer their questions (e.g. how to include some of the activities in their curriculum), train them to use the donated telescope (galileoscope) and our handbook of activities. This is essential to provide the teachers with both the knowledge and the self-confidence to organise astronomy activities and talk about astronomy in their classrooms. 3. Establish a contact between teachers and local promoters Even if dedicating training session to the teachers, the latter would need a direct support to answer further doubts and develop their ideas after the leave of the team. In this view, it is crucial to establish a contact possibility between the teachers and a local contact/promoter. The latter should be willing to answer their questions by email and/or promote follow-up activities and observing sessions (especially if he is an amateur astronomer).
G. Tips and tricks “on the road” x x x x x x
Always carry an extra tank of fuel in the vehicles Always carry maps of the places (and if possible GPS) Always have some prospects of the projects (you are always susceptible to find interested people) Have at least two cell phones with local chips (one in each car) Change local money before crossing borders even if the currency is not advantageous Use a pre-paid credit card rather than a debit card to take out cash (the debit card has strong taxes)
Legacy The GalileoMobile team is now actively involved in preparing some resources that will be released during 2010 and that will be available to the community in the course of 2010, such as: x x
x
The GalileoMobile documentary (to be released fall 2010) that will be freely available online, as well as distributed in schools and science centres worldwide. The “Cartilla de Actividades GalileoMobile” (ready fall 2010): a handbook with a compilation of activities related to basic astronomy designed for students of different ages. The activities are described in a simple and comprehensive language and they can be carried-out with low-cost resources. This handbook also includes a script of astronomical observations, short talks about astronomy, experiments and games. The activities are organised by subject, methodological category and level of difficulty. This handbook is an enjoyable and practical tool for teachers to awake in children curiosity about the universe, and to prepare them to explore the world around them. Final report: We are writing a detailed annual report of our project during IYA2009 that will be available online and will be published (in article format) in an education and public outreach journal (CAPjournal, Astronomical Education Review).
In parallel, we are maintaining contacts with the visited schools, both to carry out feedback evaluation and to encourage follow-up activities. In particular, we are planning to use these contacts to send more materials (like “you are Galileo” telescopes kindly sent by ESO and books). GalileoMobile also has the inspiration to become a sustainable project, preparing further expeditions and field work in various Latin American countries where we
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developed new contacts (in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay) as well as in schools of small European villages in order to follow the spirit of “ unity under the same sky”.
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