Author: coastro

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.

CoAstro was featured in an online article for National Geographic Portugal, “Citizen astronomy: what scientific discovery have you made today?”

I wonder if you can find out the reason for this prominence of CoAstro in the article?

By the way: what is your personal response to the title of the article?

The CoAstro reproduction gave rise to “Pequenos Astrónomos [Little Astronomers]”. This new project emerged from the constant need to respond to the children curiosity in Dr. Carlos Pinto Ferreira School, who participated in the 1st CoAstro edition.

“Pequenos Astrónomos”, led by the CoAstrian teacher Maria Julieta Ferreira, intends to facilitate the teacher´s work with astronomy, in the classroom context, supported by astronomers from the Planetário do Porto – Centro Ciência Viva [Porto Planetarium – Ciência Viva Center].

This worthwhile initiative takes greater dimensions when it was considered as a project of the “Escola Amiga da Criança [Child Friendly School]”. This initiative aims to distinguish schools that conceive and concretize extraordinary ideas, contributing to a happier child development in the school and, mostly, share these good practices.

Congratulations to the CoAstrians and new Little Astronomers from Vila do Conde!

CoAstro was one of the few projects that had the privilege of being presented at the “Space Talks” promoted by the “Ecsite Space Group“.

The Space Group improves and extends communication about space science by helping science centres, space professionals and non-specialists to develop collaborative projects and events.

Ecsite’s vision is to foster creativity and critical thinking in European society, emboldening citizens to engage with science. Its mission is to inspire and empower science centres, museums and all organisations that engage people with science, and to promote their actions. The network gathers more than 350 organisations in Europe and world-wide.

CoAstro virtual presentation can be seen HERE. It echoes in the final report of the event available HERE.

On November 20 and 24, CoAstro was invited to participate in two classes: one from the Master degree in Science Teaching and Dissemination (at the Faculty of Sciences) and the other at the Training Course “Science Communication for Non-expert Audiences“ (at the Faculty of Engineering).

These classes were important moments to share and discuss, with students, the characteristics of citizen science and, in particular, the characteristics of CoAstro´s citizen science.