The IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) is pleased to announce that abstract submission and registration are now open for the 6th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, which will take place from 12 to 15 November 2024. The workshop will be fully virtual.

The Shaw-IAU workshops focus on astronomy education for primary- and secondary-school students and teacher training both in universities and in schools. The events are organised by the OAE with generous funding from the Shaw Prize Foundation. This year's workshop will feature two special topics: an exploration of the first two years of the JWST and the crucial aspect of the evaluation to assess the effectiveness of astronomy education initiatives.

The complete list of sessions is as follows:

• Special scientific topic: JWST, the first two years
• Special non-scientific topic: evaluation
• Astronomy education research
• Teaching methods and tools
• Astronomy education in schools in practice (primary and secondary schools)

Talks and posters may be presented in any language, although abstracts must be submitted in English. In addition, English subtitles will be required for talks and English translations for posters if submitted in another language. Following their success in previous events, the OAE also aims to host language sessions during the workshop.

Abstracts must be submitted online on the Shaw-IAU Workshop website by the deadline of 19 August 2024. The deadline to register for the event is 12 November 2024.

All Shaw-IAU Workshops publish a book of proceedings that provides the community with summaries of all the contributions and includes links for all the talks published on the OAE YouTube channel, as well as for the poster PDFs. The Proceedings and the poster PDFs for the 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, which took place from 29 November to 1 December 2023, are available on the OAE’s webpage for the event.

Attendees of the Shaw-IAU Workshops are asked to provide feedback on their experiences. The OAE received 254 responses from attendees of the 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop, which have now been analysed and published. The report serves as a valuable source of information for planning future workshops.

The Shaw-IAU partnership also organises Shaw-IAU Regional Meetings, which are in-person events. Five such meetings have been announced for the period of 2024-2025, as follows:

• Turkey, October 2024
• Nepal, December 2024
• Panama, January 2025
• Argentina, April-May 2025
• Egypt, May 2025

The regional meetings offer valuable opportunities for astronomers, educators, and enthusiasts to engage in focused discussions, share insights, and foster collaborations within local communities. Further details on dates, venues, and registration information will be available soon.

More generally, to stay up to date with the activities of the IAU OAE, and to receive our announcements about projects, opportunities for collaboration, and events, please subscribe to the OAE mailing list.

(Updated on 23/09 to reflect the new dates, 12-15 November)

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

The IAU Office of Astronomy for Education is hosted at Haus der Astronomie (HdA), managed by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. The OAE’s mission is to support and coordinate astronomy education by astronomy researchers and educators, aimed at primary or secondary schools worldwide. HdA’s hosting the OAE was made possible through the support of the German foundations Klaus Tschira Stiftung and Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung.

The OAE is supported by a growing network of OAE Centers and OAE Nodes, collaborating to lead global projects developed within the network. The OAE Centers and Nodes are: the OAE Center China–Nanjing, hosted by the Beijing Planetarium (BJP); the OAE Center Cyprus, hosted by Cyprus Space Exploration Organization (CSEO); the OAE Center Egypt, hosted by the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG); the OAE Center India, hosted by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA); the OAE Center Italy, hosted by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF); the OAE Node Republic of Korea, hosted by the Korean Astronomical Society (KAS); OAE Node France at CY Cergy Paris University hosted by CY Cergy Paris University; and the OAE Node Nepal, hosted by the Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO).

Links

• The Shaw Prize Foundation
• IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE)
• 6th Shaw–IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education
• IAU’s Office of Astronomy for Education YouTube channel
• Report on 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education
• Proceedings for the 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education

Contacts

Gwen Sanderson
OAE Organisational Assistant
Email: sanderson@astro4edu.org

Lina Canas
IAU Membership Coordinator
Email: lina.canas@iau.org / iaupressoffice@iau.org 

Guido Schwarz
IAU Press Officer
Email: iaupressoffice@iau.org