India will be among seven countries to house an Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) assigned by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
According to a recent announcement, the Pune-based Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and TIFR-Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) will together spearhead activities of this office, which became operational at IUCAA on Wednesday. The signing of the MoU in this regard was completed on February 1.
Astronomers, scientists and science outreach experts in this field in India will work towards designing curricula, develop teacher training modules, organise workshops in teaching astronomy at schools and other activities towards improving astronomy education in the country and neighbouring countries.
In recent years, India has emerged as a major player and is a participant in international megaprojects like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) and Square Kilometre Array (SKA), besides being involved in Indian space-based missions like the Astrosat and upcoming Aditya-L1 mission to the Sun.
So far, science institutes along with a few astro clubs, either amateurs or at college level, have mainly worked for astronomy through science outreach activities, but there was no dedicated centre offering training to teachers or offering standard lessons across all Indian regional languages for all classes.
“Although the astronomy community has collectively created a large number of education resources in the last few years, there is a need for standardised tools and protocols to assess the quality and impact value of these resources, as well as that of the teacher training programmes that are currently conducted. The activities of the centre will impact astronomy education in Indian schools and classrooms internationally,” said Somak Raychaudhury, director, IUCAA.
The Indian OAE will also train teachers from neighbouring countries.
The OAE centre in India will have to first understand the present teaching capabilities, beliefs and competencies of teachers before planning to restructure and introcude newer modules.
“We will need to study the manner in which astronomy is taught and how concepts are introduced to school students. Accordingly, we will need to develop ways in which the subject can be incorporated better at the school-level,” said Surhud More, another IUCAA scientist.
The Indian centre will primarily develop a model curriculum that is relevant and sensitive to specific regions, cultures and languages of India or other Asian and African countries, develop teaching materials and strategies with a focus on the delivery of quality content even in low resource classrooms.
This centre aims to make available astronomy resources that will help the subject gain a formal position in schools.
“The cognitive landscape related to astronomy in students’ minds would be systematically investigated by developing tools such as concept inventories. At the same time, creating astronomical concept maps will lead to better understanding of learning trajectories,” said Aniket Sule from HBCSE-TIFR.
Along with India, the IAU announced centres in China and Egypt and a nodal office in the Republic of Korea.
Headquartered in Germany, the OAE was first introduced in 2019. Since then, centres or nodal offices have been functional in Italy, Cyprus and Nepal.