IAU Symposia: Education and Heritage in the Era of Big Data in Astronomy
The IAU Symposia, the flagship scientific gatherings of the IAU, aim to significantly advance the field and explore the current key questions and/or emerging concepts through a program of invited reviews and a range of invited, contributed and poster papers, as well as ample time for discussion.
The goal of this Symposium is to give perhaps for the first time a global vision of Education and Heritage in the frame of the goals of the IAU, taking into account the Plan 2020-2030 and to propose an eventual ‘next steps’ road map and a global astronomy education agenda for the next decade, while honoring the education from the past. In this sense, a central objective of the meeting is to increase the quality and impact of astronomy education by encouraging the use of new learning practices.
This symposium will feature key speakers who are international leaders in discipline-based education in astronomy and planetary sciences, but also in Communication and History. Contributed Talks are solicited from astronomers and other researchers who have conducted astronomy education activities during the past years, with a particular emphasis on teaching innovation. This Symposium will be especially valuable to those astronomers who are actively involved in teaching, education, and outreach.
Different working groups are planned in parallel sessions, as well as workshops for teachers and two conferences open for the public. In order to encourage the participation of non-English speakers, discussion sessions in other languages will be organized as well, as a step for equity and attention to minorities.
In addition, the occurrence of the total solar eclipse that will cross the north of Patagonia on December 14th, 2020, is an incentive for all the attendants to the Symposium, and the observation of the event at the end of the meeting, will be a great closing ceremony.
The topics of this meeting cover a diversity of subjects including:
- State-of-the-art of astronomy education in countries/continents in the framework of the 2020-2030 IAU plan.
- Meta-analysis of astronomy education research on contents/school grade levels/focus on education cross studies.
- Literacy in Astronomy.
- Innovations in education methodologies and instrumentation.
- Research into the value and influence of astronomy education in other disciplines.
- Big Data in education and Open Astronomy.
- Astronomy as an interdisciplinary approach to science education in all levels.
- Inclusive education in Astronomy.
- Use of Astronomy Education Research experiments and results by teachers and in informal education activities (museum, planetarium, etc).
- Cultural Astronomy and heritage and education: from Stonehenge to the Space telescopes.