For Global Astronomy Month (GAM) 2017, Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) are teaming up with the IAU Working Group Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion and have compiled a list of thirty resources to be highlighted during April.
People with special needs are often overlooked when planning outreach and educational activities and remain a group still frequently excluded from events. The thirty resources highlighted are a free, open source collection intended to support and facilitate the implementation of activities for people with disabilities. The selected best practices, programs, examples of activities, resources and activities guidelines are dedicated to helping outreach and education groups that aim to reach these particular audiences but need more support for doing it.
This collaboration between IAU WG and AWB also intends to be a call for action, to everyone that wishes to implement these activities and wants to know more about how to create and implement resources for people with disabilities. If you want to implement an activity inspired by one of these resources or needs help how to start contact us (Amelia Ortiz-Gil and Lina Canas) and share your ideas, questions and also your experiences with our teams.
We will be highlighting one of these resources every day here, below, and also on our GAM Facebook page and the IAU Working Group Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion Facebook page. The complete list of resources is also available.
April 25 "Hidden Figures", a book by Margot Lee Shetterly and a movie released in 2016, celebrates the behind the scenes contributions by hundreds of unheralded NASA workers, including "human computers" who did the calculations for the orbital trajectories of Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn. The story follows mostly three African-American women hired as human computers, a job title designated someone who performed mathematical equations and calculations by hand, according to a NASA history. These are inspiring role models and can be an inspirational tool to share with your audiences combining the screening with more in...
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April 24 Since early 2016, Universe Awareness (UNAWE) has implemented several initiatives with refugee children in the Leiden region, in the Netherlands, to inspire young children around the world with astronomy, science and technology. Astronomy embodies a unique combination of scientific and cultural aspects and learning about our amazing cosmos offers a special perspective on our place in the Universe, encouraging a sense of global citizenship and tolerance. In the first half of 2016, UNAWE implemented Discovery Club - an after-school Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) programme developed to inspire, educate and entertain children and parents in refugee...
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April 23 These inspiring documentaries about GalileoMobile outreach group that has been dedicating the past eight years to reaching out to different remote communities in the South American region, and in countries such as India and Uganda. “Ano-Luz” documents GalileoMobile expedition to northern Bolivia and Brazil during 2014. “In the Land of Beauty” follows the group's journey across southern Uganda in 2013. "Under the same sky” is about GalileoMobile expedition to Chile, Bolivia, and Peru in 2009 during the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.
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April 22 Universe Awareness as a motor of cultural and social integration in a German inner-city. The main goal of this program is to place children in contact with inspirational aspects of astronomy to amplify and change their vision of the world and the universe. Download the PPT of the presentation. Download the video of the presentation.
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April 21 The Skies of the World is a multicultural experience implemented in Italy focused on communicating astronomy to nursery school and primary school children, within multicultural contexts using non-verbal languages. Image Credit: https://www.communicatingastronomy.org/cap2011/presentations/albanese.pdf
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Astronomy for All
