October - December 2016 - IAU Office of Astronomy for Development

MEARIM-IV thematic areas selection and all necessary issues are finalized
Offered training on STEM subjects for basic science university instructors, education strategists, and curriculum experts from education office and universities.This is a pilot project and the success stories of this program will be replicated in east African ROAD member states.
Mid-term Review report prepared sent to OSC
Final preparation is underway for the second round cultural Astronomy study in Ethiopia
Two new proposals have been finalized and our office has stared negotiating with funding institutions
The director of EA-ROAD is selected as co-author for African Initiative for Planetary and Space Science
The regional office has started negotiating with Global initiatives to promote the basic science education from K-12. Details will be reported in the first quarter of next year.

Collaboration; MoU Signing between NARIT and Vietnam National Satellite Center (VNSC), Hanoi, Vietnam – August 23-26, 2016
Training; NARIT COMputational Astrophysics and Cosmology (NARIT COMAC) Workshop – November 21-25, 2016 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. First African inclusive workshop under the International Training Centre in Astronomy under the auspices of UNESCO. The workshop comprises of 30 international participants from a wide range of age and background
Meeting; Southeast Asia Astronomical Network (SEAAN) – December 12-14, 2016 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The SEAAN organises its annual meeting whose purpose is to bring together people working in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics research and education from the entire SEA region and certain parts of the world to enable them to share research results and exchange their experience.

Future Events:

ASEAN Astronomy Camp – January 24-27, 2017 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The 2nd NARIT International Astronomical Training Workshop (NIATW) – March 12-17, 2017 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The concept of the Training Workshop is to provide, for a selected number of research topics, a hands-on experience on how to use the facilities and modern instrumentation available at NARIT.

BAO-70 conference and International Summer School with participation of representatives from Georgia, Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkey
ISYA-2016 in Iran
OAD projects
ArAS Newsletter (“ArASNews”) publishes (articles about Georgia and Iran) and will publish more materials on the regional countries
SREAC meeting in Macedonia; Areg and Sinan Alis (Turkey) participating; wish of some countries to enter our ROAD
Oct 2016: ArAS School Lectures

Future Events:

SAROAD hosted a regional school from 7th to 18th December 2016.
SAROAD hosted Dr. Sohan Jheeta as a visiting expert. He was also hosted by Malawi. In both countries he gave inspiring lectures.
Commemorate Yuri’s Night.
Participate in MEARIM meeting in May 2017 in Ethiopia.
Participate in the meeting of OAD regions.
Host a regional school in November 2017. The host country is yet to be decided on but Zimbabwe has expressed interest in hosting it.
Commemorate World Space Week from 4-10 October 2017.
Commemorate Africa Code Week in October.

To date, 29 institutions are involved in PLOAD: 11 in Portugal, 11 in Brazil, 2 in Cape Verde, 3 in Mozambique and 2 in Sao Tome and Principe.
Through a collaboration the concluding monograph in the Mathematics course, Cape Verde, was presented by the student Dulcelena Semedo, tutored by Patricia Spinelli. The public presentation constitutes the first collaboration of this kind in the country
IAU-OAD approved for funding the project named “Astronomia para todos”
PLOAD network scrutinized the curricula of all levels of schooling
PLOAD Cape Verde coordination with a group of students were involved in the project “Um toque no céu”, done by the Presidency of the Republic of Cape Verde
During the year 2016, PLOAD was presented in several national and international events and conferences

Future Events:

PLOAD will have a communication at the “Congresso Internacional de Educação Ambiental” (International Congress on Environmental Education) that will take place at Principe in July 2017

West African International Summer School for Young Astronomers; Ghana – July 23-August 6, 2017
Dark Sky Studies; Nigeria, Ghana – January – July 2017
Astronomie et des science de l’Espace pour la promotion des Science au Burkina Faso; Not Determined
Astro-Sen; Not Determined
Hands on Basic space science workshop for primary and secondary school teachers; Nigeria – April 2017
Space week; October 2017

Office of Astronomy for Development