1. Astronomy Outreach Activity at Nursery Schools 11th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting Session 8: Astronomy Education and Popularization of Astronomy The Empress Hotel & Convention Centre, Chiang Mai, Thailand 26-28 July 2011 Tomita, Akihiko (Wakayama Univ, Japan) atomita@center.wakayama-u.ac.jp http://www.wakayama-u.ac.jp/~atomita/

2. “Stories about the Universe” - my talk and communication with children/teachers Hikari Nursery School, Osaka, Japan - once a month, for 5 years 80 children - of 3,4,5-year old (at the same time) 40 minutes - before lunch time ***** Activity *****

3. How? (1) Encourage children’s communication (2) Misunderstanding? - It’s OK (3) Only 1 or a few topics (4) Many beautiful photos? - Not needed so much (5) Real photos? - Imaginary ones can be OK (6) Enough time for children to see and read (7) “Randomly-moving-around” Q&Q&A&Q session (8) Appeal to teachers and parents as well Questions Do young children listen to the talk? Isn’t story about stars too difficult for them? Answers They eagerly listen to the talk! Story about stars is not difficult for them!

4. Feel the season changing in trees, flowers, sky, clouds, the Sun, the Moon and stars

5. Zodiac star lores

6. Travel to the Universe -- Go to Mercury --

7. Travel to the Universe -- Go to Jupiter -- A volcano satellite, Io An icy satellite, Europa

8. Spread very-large-format printings, and see pics, read letters…

9. How to assess the activity Teachers in charge of the classes  discussion for 0.5 hour every time Principal and chief teacher  discussion for 2 hour every time Teachers in charge also have sessions of: - “ What will today’s talk be like? ” before the activity - “ What did you enjoy today’s talk? ” after the activity

10. Many failures… (1) Info-pouring, one-sided outreach (2) Too many topics (3) Rely too much on excellent photos (4) Stick too much to being real (5) Only slide projection (6) Formal Q&A session Next activity Comments ASSESSMENT

11. Chaotic, randomly-moving-around, jumping-all-over Q&Q&A&Q session

12. Friends in Kaumana Keikiland, Hilo, Hawaii, USA Dr. Kumiko Usuda-Sato, an outreach scientist of Subaru Telescope, Hawaii, kindly introduced us wonderful friends! - Where are we? children: Earth! - Yes! You and your friends in Japan live on Earth! Play with stars connects children all over the world

13. At Nakayoshi Nursery >>> A talk can triggers a continuous activity <<< July 7, 2006 Trigger: Talk on a school- stay night September 8, 2006 Planetarium! December 8, 2006 A parents-children event January 2007 Messages to Kaguya, a moon probe Nov 30 & Dec 1, 2006 Hand-made planetarium! January 2007 Enjoy Moon watching February 2007 Star watching using a small telescope. Adults jumped for joy.

14. http://www.wakayama-u.ac.jp/ifes/ Can-Sat / Stratosphere balloon 12-m radio telescope (costs only 0.3 M $ for construction!) 60-cm optical telescope Digital dome theater Internet broadcasting of various shows Transmission to piggy-back satellites Education system developing Wakayama University IfES, Institute for Education on Space

15. Please sign here with your email address. I will send you further info.