Network for Astronomy School Education

Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE) is an International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group that works on Training Teachers for primary and secondary schools. In 2007, professor George K. Miley, IAU vice-president, invited Rosa M. Ros to begin exploring the idea of setting up an astronomy program to give primary and secondary school teachers a better preparation in this area of knowledge. The birth of NASE Group occurred when Rosa Maria Ros and Alexandre Costa were sent by UNESCO and IAU to give two courses in Peru and Ecuador in July 2009. Shortly after NASE was officially created in August 2009 during IAU's General Assembly at Rio de Janeiro. From there on more than 80 courses have been presented worldwide.

The topics of "the basic NASE course" are: Positional astronomy Solar System Exoplanets Spectrography Photometry Spectroscopy Determination of absolute magnitude Stellar nucleosynthesis Stellar evolution Cosmology NASE classes were designed for developing countries where teachers don't have many financial resources. NASE Working Group members go to these countries for the first time to prepare a local task group that will disseminate astronomy knowledge and inexpensive didactic materials. The main goal is precisely to set up in each country a local group of NASE members who carry on teaching the essential NASE course every year and to create new didactic inexpensive experiments, demonstrations and astronomical instruments. This has allowed to build a very large repository of educational materials for astronomy with PowerPoint Presentations], animations, articles and lectures, photos, games, simulations websites, interactive programs(e.g. Stellarium) and videos.

NASE Courses

NASE has now given more than seventy courses mainly in South America, Africa and Asia. Meeting VenueDates1 Lima (Peru)17–20 July 20092 Salinas (Ecuador)18–21 July 20093 Barranquilla (Colombia)6–9 July 20104Managua (Nicaragua)12–15 July 20105Lima (Peru)17–20 July 20106Rosario (Argentina)12–15 October 20107Cañada de Gómez (Argentina)13–15 October 20108Venado Tuerto (Argentina)26–28 May 20119Rafaela (Argentina)22–25 June 201110Tegucigalpa (Honduras)11–14 July 201111Managua (Nicaragua)11–14 July 201112Panama City (Panamá)18–22 July 201113Barranquilla (Colombia)21–24 July 201114Asunción (Paraguay)27–30 July 201115Reconquista (Argentina)2–5 November 201116Lima (Peru)18–21 January 201217Managua (Nicaragua)2–6 July 201218Tegucigalpa (Honduras)9–12 July 201219Guatemala City (Guatemala)10–13 July 201220Quito (Ecuador)23–26 October 201221La Paz (Bolivia)29 October – 1 November 201222Barranquilla (Colombia)14–16 November 201223Santa Fe (Argentina)19–21 November 201224Asunción (Paraguay)21–24 November 201225Montevideo (Uruguay)26–29 November 201226Accra (Ghana)8–11 January 201327Cañada de Gómez (Argentina)12–15 March 201328 Mendoza (Argentina)18–20 March 201329Cochabamba (Bolivia)16–18 July 201330Uberlandia (Brazil)29 July – 1 August 201331 Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil)5–8 August 201332Bauru (Brazil) 12–15 August 201333 Managua (Nicaragua) 5–7 August 201334Beijing (China)19–21 August 201335Medellín (Colombia)2–5 September 201336Bogotá (Colombia)2–5 September 201337Quito (Ecuador)23–26 September 201338Barranquilla (Colombia)8–10 October 201339Nairobi (Kenya)24–26 October 201340Tegucigalpa (Honduras)4–7 November 201341Guatemala City (Guatemala)11–13 November 201342San Luis Potosí (México)19–22 November 201343Montevideo (Uruguay)2–5 December 201344Huancayo (Peru)17–20 March 201445Ica (Peru)24–27 March 201446Mendoza (Argentina)24–26 April 201447Cluj-Napoca (Romania)24–26 April 201448Havana (Cuba)9–12 June 201449Bogotá (Colombia)16–19 June 201450Quito (Ecuador)16–19 June 201451Medellín (Colombia)25–28 June 201452Accra (Ghana)28–31 July 201453Asunción (Paraguay)30 July – 1 August 201454Barranquilla (Colombia)31 July – 1 August 201455Salta (Argentina)12–14 August 201456Tegucigalpa (Honduras)23–24 October 201457Cochabamba (Bolivia)27–28 October 201458Guatemala (Guatemala)3–5 November 201459Oruro (Bolivia)4–7 November 201460Managua (Nicaragua)10–12 December 201461 Lima (Peru)9–13 February 201562Barranquilla (Colombia)19–21 March 201563San Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina)25–27 March 201564Cuenca (Ecuador)25–27 March 201565Jujuy (Argentina)11–13 May 201566Medellín (Colombia)24–27 June 201567Guatemala (Guatemala)25–27 June 201568Managua (Nicaragua)13–15 July 201569Honolulu (United States) 1–2 August 201570Tegucigalpa (Honduras)24–27 August 201571Bogotá (Colombia)5–7 October 201572Bucaramanga (Colombia)11–14 October 2015

Partnership courses NASE has also cooperated with other associations to promote teacher training on astronomy, namely with UNESCO and the European Association for Astronomy Education-EAAE.

Meeting VenueDates Partners1 Madrid (Spain)26 Nov – 1 Dec 2009European Association for Astronomy Education-EAAE and Spanish National Research Council - CSIC. 2Varna (Bulgaria)1–5 September 2010European Association for Astronomy Education-EAAE and Varna Astronomical Observatory and Planetarium.3Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)14–15 December 2010 TAD (Teaching Astronomy for Development IAU Commission 46) and Université de Ouagadougou.4Cape Town (South Africa)20 August 2011 OAD (Office for Astronomy Development IAU) and South African Astronomical Observatory5Beijing (China)25 August 2012Beijing Planetarium and IAU6Enontekiö (Finland)28–30 December 2013 European Association for Astronomy Education - EAAE, LUMA and Helsinki University7San Luis Potosí (Mexico)23 November 2013Escuela de Estudios Superiores del Magisterio Potosino8London (United Kingdom)20–24 July 2015European Association for Astronomy Education-EAAE, Royal Astronomical Society and Greenwich Observatory

Network for Astronomy School Education

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