The conference ‘Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2016’ (CAP2013) kicked off today in Colombia’s second-largest city Medellin, at the Parque Explora and Planetarium. The bi-annual conference of the International Astronomical Union Commission C2 will run from 16 to 20 May, during which 150 participating members of the astronomy education and public outreach community will enjoy a range of workshop sessions, talks and discussion, all focussed on tackling the challenges of communicating of astronomy and space exploration and the influence of these activities on science outreach and education.
The Astronomy & Society Group of Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, will play an active role throughout the five-day conference, sharing the achievements of their projects throughout the last years in a number of talks and workshops.
The aim of the Astronomy & Society Group at Leiden Observatory is to engage the public with the wonders of the Universe and share the scientific, technological, cultural and educational aspects of astronomy with society.
The Astronomy & Society Group is currently working on the following projects:
- Universe Awareness
- Space Awareness
- Citizen Science Lab
- Open Science Centre
- IAU AstroEDU
- TEMI: Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries Incorporated
- Europlanet
- International Astronomical Union
- Research & Development
Many projects of the Astronomy & Society Group will be covered during CAP2016. The full list of talks and workshops can be found below (presentations will be uploaded after the conference):
- Welcome by Commission President: Pedro Russo (Talk, Monday 16 May)
- Role of astroEDU on Communicating Astronomy with the Public (Talk, Monday 16 May)
- Build your own open learning space (Workshop, Monday 16 May)
- TEMI: an inquiry-based approach to astronomy education (Talk, Monday 16 May)
- Astronomers' perceptions and practices of public engagement (Talk, Tuesday 17 May)
- Universe in a Box DIY (Workshop, Tuesday 17 May)
- Using art in astronomy education (Workshop, Thursday 19 May)
- Space Awareness, inspiring a new generation of space explorers (Talk, Tuesday 19 May)
- Islamic heritage, building a bridge with the islamic world (Talk, Thursday 19 May)
- Introducing Spacescoop.org: Astronomy news service for kids (Talk, Friday 20 May)
- 10 years of Universe Awareness: milestones & plans for the future (Talk, Friday 20 May)
The full CAP2016 programme can be found here.
Share:
