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Meet the astronomers. See where they work. Know what they know.


The Project:

The Cosmic Diary is not just about astronomy. It's more about what it is like to be an astronomer.

The Cosmic Diary aims to put a human face on astronomy: professional scientists will blog in text and images about their lives, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their work, their latest research findings and the challenges that face them. The bloggers represent a vibrant cross-section of female and male working astronomers from around the world, coming from five different continents. Outside the observatories, labs and offices they are musicians, mothers, photographers, athletes, amateur astronomers. At work, they are managers, observers, graduate students, grant proposers, instrument builders and data analysts.

Throughout this project, all the bloggers will be asked to explain one particular aspect of their work to the public. In a true exercise of science communication, these scientists will use easy-to-understand language to translate the nuts and bolts of their scientific research into a popular science article. This will be their challenge.

Task Group:

Mariana Barrosa (Portugal, ESO ePOD)
Nuno Marques (Portugal, Web Developer)
Lee Pullen (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
André Roquette (Portugal, ESO ePOD)

Jack Oughton (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
Alice Enevoldsen (USA, Pacific Science Center)
Alberto Krone Martins (Brazil, Uni. S. Paulo / Uni. Bordeaux)
Kevin Govender (South Africa, S. A. A. O.)
Avivah Yamani (Indonesia, Rigel Kentaurus)
Henri Boffin (Belgium, ESO ePOD)

SEAMEO QITEP in Science

The Main Office of SEAMEO QITEP in Science

The Main Office of SEAMEO QITEP in Science

Last week, i have been involved in SEAMEO QITEP in Science. What’s that? SEAMEO QITEP in Science? SEAMEO is an abbreviation of ‘South East Asia Ministry of Education Organization‘, while QITEP is ‘Quality Improvement of Teachers and Education Personnel‘; so, basically, SEAMEO QITEP, is a center that has a task to improve the qualility of teachers & education personnel in the south east Asia region, through cooperation between the ministry of the education of the region. There are three QITEP’s centers, for Mathematics, Language & Science.

Since the QITEP is a new organization, so for the first time, while launched in July 2009; the QITEP organized three courses for each field, and this is, for the first time, numerous field of study, in which previously haven’t been applied to the basic curriculum in school, introduced in the courses.

Me in the class

Me in the class room

For the QITEP in Science, the theme was ‘Sun-Planetary Interaction‘. The course catered various basic knowledge on the Sun as the star, the stars & basic astronomy, how the Sun & the Earth interact through magnetic-field, the influence of the Sun to the Earth & the inter-planetary environment, method of observation, how to measure, how to analyze the data, etc; and for two weeks, all the materials given to the students. There were 30 students, consist of various teachers & education personnel, with various backgrounds, and from the various countries of SEA.

I hope

I hope

Two weeks maybe too short, compared to the various materials provided; as for me, i only took a small part during the course, so, maybe i could only share a small amount of knowledge. Nevertheless, imho, the more important thing is, they could learn, elaborate the knowledge, and then they will share to the students, and on a long run, will improve the education of science in the region. I hope.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Astronomy, Daily Activities, Indonesia, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4
  1. Carolina
    July 29th, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    Hi Emmanuel,
    Wonderful that you are involved in this process, what a great initiative and a great entry!
    Carolina

  2. Emanuel Sungging Mumpuni
    July 29th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

    tx Carolina! I hope this would also help the unawe in a different way .. :)

  3. Sudarman Rianto
    October 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 am

    Hello…,
    How should i call you for short ?
    Mr. Emanuel ?

    If you don’t mind I really need to have communication with.
    I am sudarman, I am Biology teacher. I am teaching at SMP 37 Semarang.
    Since now in our town there will be only science, not Biology or Physics, so I need to learn about Physics.
    I know you are really smart in the material of planet system. It will be very valuable for me if i can share with you when I can’t understand the lesson material about that.

    Thanks
    Sudarman

  4. Emanuel Sungging Mumpuni
    October 26th, 2009 at 8:20 am

    Halo Pak Sudarman, thank you for your inquiry. I have sent an email to your personal email, for further discussion. For further activity, there will be Galileo Teacher Training Program in Indonesia, and i will inform the update to you from time to time.

    best regards,

    ESM