Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

Bangladesh lacks any infrastructure regarding Astronomy education. There is no university program on astronomy, in none of the 107 private and 46 public universities. While the school curriculum is appropriate for general science education, it lacks proper treatment on astronomy as a subject. The school science textbooks have one chapter in each grade though, from grades 4 to 12, with exceptions in grades 9 and 11. With such scanty curriculum coverage, we attempt to keep astro-lover students and laymen by introducing 10-day, 3-day workshops or even 1-day intense workshops tailoring for different needs. This talk will discuss issues, workshop coverage of topics and feedbacks from our 11 years' experience. Also the future plan of a possible open-ended Astronomy 101 course that could be attended by any interested student of science and engineering will be discussed. This proposed course could work as a guideline in the absence of a proper astronomy program with some endorsement. Furthermore, an ongoing research work will also be discussed: a seamless course-book from grade-1 to grade-12 on astronomy to fill-in the gaps of space and astronomy related learning in Bangladeshi curriculum.

Biography:

I am an amateur astronomer and an Associate Member of Commission C2, IAU. I got passionate about astronomy since the 1990's. I am an author too, wrote quite a few books - popular and semi-popular - on astronomy in Bengali. I do a lot of organizing - I am the General Secretary to both Bangladesh Astronomical Society (BAS) and Society for the Popularization of Science in Bangladesh (SPSB). I am currently the NOC of Bangladesh under OAO and the country representative for Universe Awareness and International Junior Science Olympiad, member of Global Hands on Universe. Other than these, I am an electrical engineer and a professor of electrical engineering in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka.

Watch a video for this poster (external link)