Presentation at 'Astronomy Education Allicance Meeting' hosted by EPSC and GHOU from 8 to 12 September 2014 in Cascais, Portugal.

1. Education through cultural
astronomy
Tibisay Sankatsing Nava
Leiden University
UNAWE

2. UNAWE & Universe in a Box

3. Education through cultural
astronomy
 Cultural astronomy as a stepping stone to
modern astronomy education
 Inquiry based learning
 Guidelines of UNAWE and AstroEDU

4. Resource production
 Cultural astronomy research
 Activity development
 Testing
 Editing
 AstroEDU

5. Cultural astronomy topics

6. Testing phase
 Is cultural astronomy effective as a tool
for astronomy education?
 Effectiveness: motivation, cognitive
learning, cultural awareness, science skills
 Tools: child observations, parent/teacher
questionnaires, learning assessment

7. Testing phase
 SciFest Africa 2014
 South African Astronomical
Observatory outreach
 161 participants (ages 4 to 16)
 18 parent/teacher questionnaires
 4 child observations

8. Testing phase: Results
 Direct learning
 cultural stories related to astronomy
 specific astronomy related knowledge introduced by cultural
stories
 From observations
 children participated actively
and worked in teams
‘Stars are not really pointy,
remember?’
– Nonti, 7 year old girl
‘Who took this picture? They
must have been very far
away!’ – Seb, 9 year old boy

9. Testing phase: Results II
 Successful workshops
 Children and parents asked astronomy
related questions
 Children participated actively
 Children, parents and educators gave
positive feedback

10. Challenges
 Tested with diverse target group
 No long term learning assessment
 Small sample size

11. Activities

12. Space Rocks card game

13. Space Rocks card game

14. Space Rocks card game

15. Conclusions
Participants
•were motivated to participate when astronomy was
introduced through cultural astronomy
•displayed cognitive learning as a result of the educational
resources
•showed awareness of other cultures during participation
Future research should study larger sample size
Cultural astronomy can be an effective tool for
astronomy education and to inspire global
citizenship

16. Tibisay Sankatsing Nava
tibisaysankatsing@gmail.com
Universe Awareness
www.unawe.org