The Astronomical Society of the University of Carabobo (SAUC) is an activity of permanent scientific dissemination, which uses Astronomy as a tool for the scientific enculturation of the local population and non-formal teaching of Science and Technology. The SAUC base their Learning activities through the Bachelard epistemology and Morin pedagogy. Furthermore the focus of the dissemination and popularization of Astronomy must focus on knowledge for life and on overcoming epistemic obstacles between knowledge expert and knowledge taught. The SAUC’s activities are focused on holding Master Class, seminars, astronomy courses for amateurs; development of multimedia materials and the national astronomical ephemeris. The qualitative evaluation, after two decades of activities of the SAUC allows us to conclude that astronomy can affect as a motivating axis for cultural appropriation and scientific enculturation by broad sectors of the local community, regardless of age, gender, race, socio-economic activity, or ideological-cultural diversity.

At any stage of education, the students begin to study astrophysics with previous incorrect preconceptions that impedes the understanding of new scientific notions. It is a waste of time to add new concepts on a “weak basis”. In this case the duty of any teacher is to spend more time to carefully remove preconceptions from students’ minds. In the present article there are reviewed some of the most common preconceptions of the students when they are learning astrophysics with the right solutions to break them down using some active teaching methods, especially experiments and models.

The increase in the amount of scientific information in heliophysics is related to both quantitative – increasing the number of high-power telescopes and the size of light receivers coupled to them, and qualitative reasons – new modes of observation, large-scale and multiple studies of the solar corona in different ranges, large-scale numerical experiments to simulate the evolution of various processes and formations, etc. The paper discusses the role and importance of methods for processing images of the solar corona, the store of obtained “raw” data and the need to access high-performance computing systems in order to obtain scientific results from the observational experiments, the need of international collaboration and access to the data in the era of increase in the amount of scientific information in heliophysics.

Active learning methodologies have been used to teach science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics at higher education institutions in several countries. We report the results of using peer instruction in an Astronomy undergraduate course taught at a research university in Brazil. The course syllabus covered topics on astrometry and celestial mechanics at an introductory level and was offered in the second semester of 2018. In order to better investigate the effect of the interaction among students, we have asked them to talk to their peers after the first poll regardless of the outcome. We have then analyzed the outcomes of all peer instruction polls, before and after student interaction, as well as the course evaluation questionnaires answered by the students at the end of the semester. From these analyses we were able to establish an approximation between peer instruction and some key elements of Vygotsky’s social interactionist theory.

An interdisciplinary course about Mars for teachers and science students is presented. The focus of the course is on planning for a journey with humans to the planet Mars. Issues in ethics, morality, rights and obligations, conflict management and human psychology as well as rocket orbits, fuel economy, radiation hazards and knowledge of the solar system are included. Examination of the teacher students include interpretation of the course material for future pedagogical usage.

Cultural astronomy is the study of the astronomy of ancient cultures and is sometimes called the anthropology of astronomy. The many ways that astronomy was used by ancient cultures are fascinating and this can be used to inspire interest in all astronomy, as well as astronomy in culture. Archaeoastronomy is interdisciplinary and among its practitioners are not only astronomers and astrophysicists, but also anthropologists, archaeologists, and Indigenous scholars. Much can be learned about ancient cultures though examination of how and why they used astronomy. This paper will highlight several examples that can capture public attention.

History, Maths and Astronomy are all mixed up in an innovative educational project that is being carried out in the Faculty of Education of the Universidad de La Laguna, in Spain. Students learn how to teach (to primary school students) about the shape of the Earth, the distances to the Moon, the Sun and other planets, collecting their own data with simple instrumentation and, most important, to connect ideas and different disciplines. The structure and contents of this project are presented, as well as examples of the activities that are carried out.

In this article we describe the recent history of astronomy in South Africa from the perspective of development. We describe how all major astronomy initiatives have carried a component of development with them, be it capacity building or socio-economic development. We highlight some activities and conclude that South Africa’s coherent and ambitious strategy has led to substantial changes in the astronomy research community in South Africa and that the young astronomers now starting their careers are taking possession of a bright future.

The impressive transition from an era of scientific data scarcity to an era of overproduction has become particularly noticeable in archaeoastronomy. The collection of astronomical information about prehistoric societies allows the accumulation of global data on: – the oldest traces of astronomical activity on Earth, emotional and rational display of celestial phenomena in astronomical folklore, “folk astronomy” and timekeeping, in fine arts and architecture, in everyday life; – the most ancient applied “astronomy” – counting the time by lunar phases, accumulation and storage of ancient databases in drawings and pictographic compositions in caves and artificially constructed objects; – “horizon” astronomy as an initial form of observational cult astronomy, preserved only in characteristic material monuments (the oldest cult observatories) with indisputable astronomical orientations. The report shows the importance of collecting the maximum number of artifacts and monuments from prehistory associated with the early emergence of interest in celestial phenomena. Spiritual, emotional and rational (including practical) needs that have aroused interest in Heaven are discussed. The huge variety of activities in realizing the regularity (cyclicity) of celestial phenomena as a stimulus for their use for orientation in space and time is shown.

In this poster is presented the development and testing of a pilot project to teach basics of astronomy to primary school students. This is a learning program that bases on the interdisciplinary nature of astronomy with amusing and playful activities. The objective of the programme is to engage children in astronomy and make them aware of the importance of the development of science and technology for society. The program has been tested a small non-government-funded school in the state of Puebla, in Mexico. Due COVID-19 lockdown the classes had to switch from face-to-face to online. Over 80% of the students that completed the course had considerably increased their knowledge of astronomy and requested to continue with the classes on the next school term.

Students took an assembly-type telescope kit from a public elementary school and brought it to their homes in 2019. Three classes attempted to observe the Moon at home using the Kaifu-NAOJ Telescope Kit. As a result, all children observed the Moon at home using the kit. From their observations, around 90% identified the existence of craters and understood the reflection of sunlight on the Moon’s surface. As Covid-19 prevention measures in education, we propose the introduction of at-home telescopic observations for STEAM activities.

The language we speak, the culture in which we grew up and where we come from have a tremendous impact on the way we learn astronomy. Additionally, the historical predominance of Western culture has influenced the way our modern society sees the world, and of course, the sky. In this work, we will share author’s experience working as science advisor in an outreach institution, where he explored different strategies to reach diverse communities and bring astronomy closer to broader audiences.

Even though the construction of world-renowned astronomical observatories in Chile has boosted the interest in astronomy on the community, many challenges have not yet been addressed. One of them is to raise awareness about the ancestral heritage of Chilean’s first nations. Finally, we would like to highlight the importance of learning astronomy in our own language and therefore assure inclusion, diversity, and equity in our countries.

The Universe is full of galaxies of various shapes; some galaxies have spiral arms and others don’t. Why do galaxies show such diversity? How were galaxies formed and evolved? Galaxies are thought to grow by interacting and merging with other galaxies, and the galaxy mergers may be the key process creating the variety. GALAXY CRUISE is the first citizen science project conducted by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to unlock galaxies’ secrets using the big observational data. We made the superior quality big data taken by the Subaru Telescope accessible to the public and invited them to participate in data classification. Here we report how we designed the website and its first-year progress.

Astronomy is connected with the every day experiences of the people, since the observation of simple and repetitive phenomena, as the succesion of days and nights, untill events of high impact, as the total solar eclipses. In this sense, the Astronomy is a fascinating activity and can be used to inspire interest in sciences in general. In this contribution, we introduce the Network of Astronmy School Education as part of the IAU proposals connected with teaching training programs, and we highlight several examples on the specific topic of the eclipses: their importance and connection with the culture, that can capture students attention if we use the workshops as part of the classes.

The practice of preventive conservation of cultural heritage consists of “all measures and actions aimed at avoiding and minimizing future deterioration or loss” of it (ICOM-CC, 2008). Unlike conservation treatments, preventive conservation deals with entire collections and their surrounding environment. It is known that exposing historical objects to the environment has a significant impact on their degradation process. Studying and managing risk factors is an indispensable practice within the management policies of any cultural institution. The National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) holds some valuable historical collections, heritage derived from the Italian contribution to astronomy over the centuries. The management and protection of these collections faces many challenges. A preventive conservation plan, aimed at assessing and managing risks that threaten the collections, may offer many long-term benefits, allowing us to use available resources in the best possible way. In the past few years INAF-Astronomical Observatory “G.S.Vaiana” of Palermo has been working on the development of preventive conservation projects for its archival, bibliographic and scientific heritage. The present contribution reports on these ongoing experiences and intends to stimulate a discussion within the scientific community in order to individuate the problems we are called to respond to in Astronomical Observatories.

This paper summarizes preliminary scientific observations from sites in Chile and Argentina from which the totality was observed on 14 December 2020 at the minimum of the solar-activity/sunspot cycle.

With this roundtable we wished to discuss about different topics related to research, innovation, scientific literacy and inclusion in Astronomy education, putting together the expertise of educators from all around the world. The present paper includes the introduction to the roundtable prepared by the chairs of the session as well as the contributions from several of the participants.

La Serena School for Data Science is a multidisciplinary program with six editions so far and a constant format: during 10-14 days, a group of ∼30 students (15 from the US, 15 from Chile and 1-3 from Caribbean countries) and ∼9 faculty gather in La Serena (Chile) to complete an intensive program in Data Science with emphasis in applications to astronomy and bio-sciences.

The students attend theoretical and hands-on sessions, and, since early on, they work in multidisciplinary groups with their “mentors” (from the faculty) on real data science problems. The SOC and LOC of the school have developed student selection guidelines to maximize diversity.

The program is very successful as proven by the high over-subscription rate (factor 5-8) and the plethora of positive testimony, not only from alumni, but also from current and former faculty that keep in contact with them.

The “Right to the night sky” outreach project holds astronomy workshops for children and teens deprived of their liberty in juvenile detention centers. It is carried out by an interdisciplinary group of students, graduates, and teachers of Astronomy, Geophysics, Educational Science, Law, Psychology, Social Work, and Social Communication. It’s has been accredited and recognized by the Faculty of Astronomical and Geophysical Sciences, and the National University of La Plata (Argentina) since the year 2014. This work presents the diverse activities developed in the project, the methodologies used, and an analysis of how the project evolved, grew, and expanded over time, continuing what has already been presented by Charalambous et al. (2014) and Haack et al. (2019)

Intensive week-long Summer Schools in Statistics for Astronomers were initiated at Penn State in 2005 and have been continued annually. Due to their popularity and high demand, additional full summer schools have been organized in India, Brazil, Space Telescope Science Institute.

The Summer Schools seek to give a broad exposure to fundamental concepts and a wide range of resulting methods across many fields of statistics. The Summer Schools in statistics and data analysis for young astronomers present concepts and methodologies with hands on tutorials using the data from astronomical surveys.