Author: coastro

“Science & You” is an international event of scientific and technical culture organized by the University of Lorraine. After three editions in 2015 (Nancy), 2017 (Montreal) and 2018 (Beijing), a new edition took place from November 16th to 19th 2021, in Robert Schuman Conference Center, Metz (France).

CoAstro had a special place in the programme of the last day. Thus, in the Thematic Workshop on Citizen Science & Participatory Science was presented the work “Citizen science: from a scientific technique to a science education and communication method – the CoAstro practical example”.

We look forward to the next “Science & You”!

CoAstro was selected for Science on Stage Portugal (6 and 7th of November in Cascais) in the category “Collaboration in STEM Education”.

O Science on Stage distinguishes “outstanding ideas for science education” which, after a national selection, leads to the Europe’s largest educational event for STEM (Science, Technology and Mathematics): 450 teachers, from pre-school to primary and secondary education, from more than 30 countries, come together to share ideas and good teaching practices at a fair with stands, workshops and stage presentations.

In addition to the physical presence, the event also has a virtual fair: HERE.

CoAstro is back on the road, or rather, physically back to school. So, when the pandemic was still raging, the CoAstrians took the opportunity to structure what is now coming: a plan to recover… the pleasure of being together again.

So, starting already in September and until the end of this school year, teachers, students, astronomers and science communicators will cross paths again in space: the school space!

Data from CoAstro helped support the communication made at the XXXI National Meeting of Astronomy and Astrophysics, with the title “Astronomy fade out in Portuguese compulsory schooling: a crossroads for astronomy national stakeholders”. – abstract with ID 59.

Thus, CoAstro will also adopt this aim of bringing astronomy back into classrooms, via the curriculum.

CoAstro results were presented in the 14th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA 2021) which took place virtually from… Braga: we saw Braga for a straw!

This was undoubtedly a landmark presentation, as this is the most important conference, on Science Education, in Europe!

Thus, CoAstro had the opportunity to present the work entitled “CoAstro Citizen Project: Contributions to Teaching Practices, Attitudes, and Beliefs Towards Science“.

CoAstro is one of the finalists “Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2021” prize, in the “Science Engagement” category. This award aims to recognise the most impressive global work in each of the categories in the competition. The announcement of the winners will be made during the Falling Walls Conference, on November 9th: the Fall of the Berlin Wall anniversary.

CoAstro was invited to present itself at the “IAstro Summer Internships“.

In this programme, university students get in touch with research and science communication pf the Institute for Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA). They develop research or science communication projects, under the supervision of researchers from the IA and the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon or the University of Porto. The programme also includes six workshops on science communication. On the last day, the work carried out was be presented.

CoAstro was in Australia… in dreams!

After being accepted for presentation at “Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2020 (CAP 2020)“, to be held in Sydney, the Covid pandemic postponed that meeting to 2021… in an online format.

CAP2021 was organised under the theme of “Communicating Astronomy with the Public in the Age of Global Crises”, acknowledging the challenges that science communication had to face during recent times and promoting the ways in which our community has adapted. Held over different time zones to accommodate participants from around the globe, the conference attracted 1346 registrations from 87 countries.

CoAstro presentation can be seen HERE and its abstract HERE (page 23).

The uncertainty generated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the spread of coordinated misinformation strategies were the motto for the 9th edition of the SciComPt Annual Congress on Science Communication.

CoAstro was present and, in a so-called,  long presentation, its methodological design and results were explained and discussed.

Ready for the next SciComPt!

On June 4th, CoAstro was one of the projects selected to be presented at the MW-Gaia Workshop: Bringing the Milky Way to schools 2021.

The main objective of this meeting was to bring together the research, teaching and scientific dissemination communities, through the presentation of the work that has been done over the years in the exploration of our Milky Way, but also to show the attempts to transform this knowledge into tools useful and powerful for teaching, spreading astronomy and communicating science in general.