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However, maybe a bigger reason for teaching astronomy in schools is because it is a humbling subject. We can look at pictures of earth from space and know how fragile it is. We can understand how futile hatred and war is and the threat of self-destructing ourselves. We can understand how our planet functions and the dangers of climate change. Astronomy has the potential to make this world a better place and we a better race. What can be done in developing countries for Astronomy/ Science outreach The Government of India needs to work on improving education infrastructure, providing teacher training and ensuring quality education even to children in rural areas. Initiative and effort for astronomy/ science outreach needs to come from individuals, private companies and organizations until the ideal situation of having astronomy included in the national education curriculum is achieved. Astronomy/ Science for middle-income children: A sustainable model for Astronomy/ Science outreach through hands-on based activities can be used by individuals and organizations. It may be built on the “After-school Universe” model (http://universe. nasa.gov/au/) and may have the following features: •
Low cost hands on based workshops can be offered to school children. Parents pay the nominal
amount for the workshops, not the schools •
Use resources of the school (classroom space, projector/ screen for presentation). This reduces
expenses and initial investment of the Individual/ organization •
Target for more number of children, for example, instead of targeting one workshop of 30 chil-
dren per day, 90 to 100 children can be taught in one day in three back to back batches of say around 30 children each. In this case, price per child can be dropped to one/third while the individual/ organization ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014