This is one of the accounts I meant to publish sooner – last season to be more precise – but since we’re not talking fashion here, better late than never. So a few months ago, on a lovely spring day in March, I paid a visit to the Leiden University where Pedro Russo (from Portugal) showed me around and told me about Universe Awareness.
Actually, this story began a year ago, when I participated in the She Is An Astronomer conference in London – one of the International Year of Astronomy’s cornerstone projects. As coordinator of IYA, Pedro gave an awesome presentation about the worldwide results of this project, which is where we first met. Then a year later, ‘@pruss’ showed up on my Twitter suggestions and not long after I said hello, he informed we’re in the same country again as he was just moving to Leiden to work on this new project: UNAWE.
“The idea behind UNAWE is to educate children aged 4-10 years (especially those from underprivileged communities) about astronomy, because it embodies a unique combination of scientific and cultural aspects”, reads their vision on their website. And so I was curious to find out more about it, while Pedro had a lot of questions about the Dutch school system and astronomy’s place in it. Meanwhile we had a great time – it’s still a small world eh.
So if you haven’t seen their site yet, check it out, and see how you can get involved! Oh and I can recommend a visit to Leiden too…
I loved the artwork inside the building, especially because students and teachers made it theirs. And of course I had to switch the gravity, with this button in one of the lifts.
Pictures: Hanny van Arkel.
3 Comments
Dutch schools en de plaats van Astronomie ?!?! He’s gotta be kidding… Geen woord in alle jaren dat ik nog op school zat… En ik zat op zuuulke moderne scholen… (naja, 30 jaar geleden dan…). Zou het nu beter zijn? Ik zou zeggen dat een basis-begrip van in ieder geval onze plaats in het Zonnestelsel, de plaats daarvan in de Melkweg en daar de plaats weer in het Alles eigenlijk zinniger is dan de rivieren van Nederlandje…
Laat de hele Big Bang enzo maar zitten, hoewel, zal wel onvermijdelijk zijn als ze de smaak eenmaal te pakken krijgen…
Gravity… verukkelijk… Is dat de ‘gewone’ lift in het universiteitsmuseum?
Jep, een gewone lift verder..