Hands on Basic Space Science training for Primary and Junior Secondary School Science Teachers

HBSST is a workshop designed to Promote Interest for Astronomy for Astronomy appreciation for primary schools and junior secondary school science teachers in Nigeria and to bring the basic observational tools of Astronomy and space science closer to them. In 2015, through the effort of the Centre for Basic Space Science Nsukka, in Nigeria, Astronomy has recently been accredited in the primary and Secondary School Teaching Curriculum. This would be a unique opportunity to offer specialized training in Astronomy to teachers, since education at primary school and secondary school level is in a developing state. Astronomy unawareness will cause serious harm to technological society, thus our younger generation and the teachers should be exposed to this interesting field of science. In Africa, especially Nigerian, we have myth, superstitious beliefs, anxiety, fear, misconception etc relating to many astronomical events, and to eradicate all these misconceptions, we need a strong science movement through Astronomical popularization/workshops at the grass root level. These teacher hands on training will aim at upgrading the skills, teaching tools and aids of these teachers, equipping them with innovative and simple method of teaching and learning. The teachers will also be trained to use Basic Space Sciences activities as a teaching tool for their subject’s concepts. The course material will include Astronomy based activities and hands on science/astronomy using low cost/locally available material. The 3-day workshop which we intend to carry out to cover Teachers from all Primary and Secondary School Nigeria, will encompass talks, hands on activities, demonstrations, Water rocket building and launching, Construction of small optical Telescopes using locally made materials, observation using a small optical telescope, Eclipse and Solar system model making, planetarium, Solarscope, Experiments and demonstrations using Universe in a Box apparatus, group work and innovation as well as public outreach.