‘Universe in the Classroom’ Launched in Sri Lanka

For six-weeks, a group of interns brought the Universe in to the classroom. Working together, they reached hundreds of young students. From stars, solar system to constellations, many hands-on topics were explored.

Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales (AIESEC) is the world’s largest student-led organisation, a non-profit, non-political platform for youth to enhance their skills. Universe Awareness (UNAWE) Sri Lanka is a programme dedicated to bring the joy and knowledge of the universe to children. Together with AIESEC Sri Lanka, Jayawardenepura Local Committee and UNAWE Sri Lanka launched the project ‘Universe in the Classroom’ where interns and volunteers will use the ‘Universe in a Box’ resources to reach out to young students to learn and enjoy basic astronomy with a hands-on approach.

The first phase of the project, named ‘Astrovaganza’ gathered 12 international and local students. It was coordinated by Thishan Pavithra, a student of University of Jayawardenepura and supervised by Thilina Heenatigala, coordinator of UNAWE Sri Lanka programme. UNAWE Sri Lanka hopes to continue ‘Universe in the Classroom’ in more rural areas with collaboration of AIESEC.

UNAWE 2012 Impact Figures

To mark the end of a very busy and successful year inspiring young children with the delights of the Universe, UNAWE have gathered information from all corners of the extensive UNAWE international network to find out exactly what impact the project has had throughout 2012.

Read more at: http://www.unawe.org/updates/unawe-update-1304/

Cub Scouts of Sri Lanka Enjoys a Tour around the Universe

UNAWE Sri Lanka organized an astronomy session for cub scouts of Athurugiriya Maha Vidyalaya (Athurugiriya School) as a part of their first camp on 24 September 2011. The event gathered about 100+ cub scouts aged 8 – 10 with 20 teachers.

The evening started with an introduction to Night Sky which was followed up with observing sessions. It was the first time for all the children and teachers to learn about the wonders of the night sky. They enjoyed identifying the constellations and the first glimpse of the deep sky objects through binoculars.

The next session was an introduction to the Solar System. Before the session, UNAWE Sri Lanka coordinator asked couple of questions to determine the knowledge level of the children. Majority was not aware of the number of planets in the Solar System or in proper order. Interestingly many thought Venus is a Star due to local word phrasing for the planet which gives the meaning as a Star.

After the tour around the Solar System, children enjoyed doing some activities such as astronomy words finding, colouring an astronaut and moon, and building a paper rocket. As the last session of the event, the cubs got to learn about rockets and space shuttles with some videos to explain them better.

At the end of the event, plans were made to do some follow up workshop series for students from grades 2 – 9 and also a teacher training program for teachers from several schools in the area.