The title of this post is an event within the framework of the celebration of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development 2022. It was held last month in Colombia.
The event “An approach to the Sun, our star” was held at the Santa Librada educational institution in the city of Cali, Colombia, on Thursday, October 20, 2022. Santa Librada is a public institution, founded on January 29, 1823 by General Francisco de Paula Santander. It houses students whose families have limited economic resources and students belonging to minorities, including those with hearing and motor disabilities.
The workshop was organized by the Cali School of Astronomy under the invitation of the Open Science group of the Young Academy, a branch of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, and within the framework of the celebration of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development 2022. The modality of the event was face-to-face with a live transmission.
Workshop’s scope
The workshop addressed two activities:
- The construction of a solar clock.
- Telescopic observation of the Sun.
The target population was the 7th and 8th grade students of the institution who were divided into two groups. All of them were provided with the templates and materials necessary for the construction of the sundial.
One of the groups corresponded to students with hearing disabilities, which required the accompaniment of interpreters who transmitted the instructions through sign language.
In general, it was very motivating to witness the degree of amazement of the students at the functioning of the sundial, to reinforce the concepts of orientation, planetary movement and how it influences the establishment of day and night. In addition, the students had the opportunity to learn, through observations in the telescope, the phenomenon of sunspots and their influence on the Earth.
