This project is part of the IAU Open Astronomy school supported by the IAU100 years.

Project Summary

There are limited teacher training workshops in Mauritius in Physics and Applied Physics. Very often teachers keep on using their own methodologies and techniques in their teaching. Change is difficult and scary. On the other hand, visually and physically impaired students normally attend specialised schooling and teaching aids are limited. The teaching methodologies with impaired students have to change constantly due to the needs of the students. There is a great scope for both teaching methodologies to learn from one another.

We propose to run a training workshop in Mauritius that will include teachers from the mainstream schools and those working with impaired students combined with graduate students who will form the new generation of teachers. This workshop will bring a new dynamics that the participants can learn from each other using the Joint Exchange Development Initiative (JEDI) model (Nature Astronomy volume 2, pages 511–514 (2018)).

Motivation

Sustainable development is difficult to achieve and is a long term process. However, we believe that education is the most important factors that can help to bring change. Teachers have always had a big impact on a person, and educating the educators is the ideal way to proceed.

Very often, once a student graduate in a science subject, they will go to teach at secondary schools without much preparation and training. Moreover, teaching is dynamic and need to evolve with time. The dynamics come from; evolving topics with new discoveries, digital material and online courses flooding the Internet and students with various capabilities forming the classroom with different aptitude.

How does a teacher working with visually impaired students explain light, the beauty of astronomy to the learners ? This is a very difficult topic and very skilful people are required to do so. As mentioned in the project summary, mainstream educators and educators working with impaired students have so much to learn from each other. These experiences, unfortunately are always dissociated and kept separate, should be captured and can be taught to new aspiring teachers

This explains our motivation to bring in this diverse group under one roof to share, teach and learn from each other. This workshop will bring a new dynamics using the Joint Exchange Development Initiative (JEDI) model (Nature Astronomy volume 2, pages 511–514 (2018)).

Objectives

The objectives of the proposed training are: 1. use new teaching methodologies to infuse physics through Astronomy in schools via problem solving and new teaching aids (that we have acquired from for visually impaired student from Amelia Ortiz-Gil - “A Touch of the Universe” ) 2. encourage innovative ideas sharing from this completely different but yet similar group, 3. create awareness and address any form of inequality in STEM, in the Mauritian context, 4. present the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) plan to secondary school teachers and educate them on how to include some of the SDGs within their work plan, 5. create a work plan for including the UN SDG, that will be forwarded to all the teachers in Mauritius.

Workshop day-to-day plan

Day 1 - Open Astronomy School

Day 2 - Open Astronomy School