About us
Hands on Basic Space Science Training for Primary and Secondary School Teachers (HBSST) is a workshop designed to promote astronomy appreciation for primary schools and junior secondary school science teachers in Nigeria and to bring the basic observational tools of Astronomy and space science closer to them. In 2015, through the effort of the Centre for Basic Space Science Nsukka, in Nigeria, Astronomy has recently been accredited in the primary and Secondary School Teaching Curriculum. This would be a unique opportunity to offer specialized training in Astronomy to teachers, since education at primary school and secondary school level is in a developing state. Astronomy unawareness will cause serious harm to technological society, thus our younger generation and the teachers should be exposed to this interesting field of science.
In Africa, especially Nigerian, we have myth, superstitious beliefs, anxiety, fear, misconception etc relating to many astronomical events, and to eradicate all these misconceptions, we need a strong science movement through Astronomical popularization/workshops at the grass root level. These teacher hands on training will aim at upgrading the skills, teaching tools and aids of these teachers, equipping them with innovative and simple method of teaching and learning. The teachers will also be trained to use Basic Space Sciences activities as a teaching tool for their subject’s concepts. The course material will include Astronomy based activities and hands on science/astronomy using low cost/locally available material. The 3-day workshop which we intend to carry out to cover Teachers from all Primary and Secondary School Nigeria, will encompass talks, hands on activities, demonstrations, Water rocket building and launching, Construction of small optical Telescopes using locally made materials, observation using a small optical telescope, Eclipse and Solar system model making, planetarium, Solarscope, Experiments and demonstrations using Universe in a Box apparatus, group work and innovation as well as public outreach.
In Africa, especially Nigerian, we have myth, superstitious beliefs, anxiety, fear, misconception, poor knowledge of Astronomy Among Teachers in remote primary and Secondary Schools, Teachers inability to impliment the Astronomy program covered in the Primary and Secondary School Curriculum, poor knowledge of model making, fabrication of simple Astro-tools etc. To eradicate all these misconceptions, and truly equip these teachers who pass wrong information to the children, we need a strong science movement through Astronomical popularization/workshops at the grass root level. Most of these primary and secondary School Teachers are not Physicist or Astronomer and thus lack fundamental capabilities and interest in teaching this evolving new subject of Space science recently added to the education Curriculum in Nigeria e.g, I interacted with a secondary School Teacher who strongly argued with me that we have 9 planets in our Solar System and that the Sun is Static while all other planets are in motion about it, you can imagine the generation of scientist we will produce in the next 10 years if this project is not given urgent attention. This teacher hands on training will aim at upgrading the skills, teaching tools and aids of these teachers, equipping them with innovative and simple method of teaching and learning. The teachers will also be trained to use Basic Space Sciences activities as a teaching tool for their subject’s concepts. The course material will include Astronomy based activities and hands on science/astronomy using low cost/locally available material. The 3-day workshop which we intend to carry out to cover Teachers from all Primary and Secondary School Nigeria, will encompass talks, hands on activities, demonstrations, Water rocket building and launching, Construction of small optical Telescopes using locally made materials, observation using a small optical telescope, Eclipse and Solar system model making, planetarium, Solarscope, Experiments and demonstrations using Universe in a Box apparatus, group work and innovation as well as public outreach.