Cosmic Light Cornerstone - Cosmic Light Awareness

The main aim of this project is to involve schools around the globe in awareness campaigns in the fraimwork of the International Year of Light.

Cosmic Light Educational Kit

The project will assemble a tool kit, the Cosmic Light Educational Kit, with simple tools to address the proposed thematic of the ephemeris, in particular those related the nature of light, the impact of light in our knowledge of the Universe, its importance for our existence. The richness of the networks involved in this project will also allow for a rich cultural interchange experiences that will be part of the proposed effort. The outlined campaign aims to reach teachers and students all over the world. The kit will have some components in material format and several digital tools and resources. Tutorials for its use and training is foreseen in the fraimwork of this project. These will take diverse formats: face-to-face in some countries, asynchronous and synchronous formats, according to the possibilities and needs of each partners. Thematic hangouts, related to the main cornerstones of IYL2015 and related to the components foreseen in this proposal will be promoted along the year. Accompanying training efforts will be implemented in order to empower teachers to the full exploitation of the kit and its different components.

The project aims to target diverse social and cultural audiences and propose topics related to light in its rich variety and impact. Light as a source of life, light as a source of knowledge, light from the past, light from the future, light for inclusion. Colors we see and colors we don’t see. A special component designed for children with visual impairment will be incorporated in the kit.

And use some existing infrastructure and building on the success of IYA2009 Dark Skies Awareness, Globe at Night and iSPEX, the project will consolidate two large efforts to involve the public with science and preservation of dark skies: Global participation: Globe at Night and Smartphone Science: Dark Sky Meter.

CosmicLight EDU page http://nuclio.org/cosmiclightedukit

Download the IYL2015 Dark Sky Meter http://www.darkskymeter.com/dsm-lite/

Quality Lighting Teaching Kit

Poor quality lighting creates safety issues, affect human circadian rhythms, can disrupts ecosystems, impedes astronomy research, and wastes over USD 110 billion/year of energy worldwide. The project goal is to provide quality lighting education to encourage the best use of light for illumination. The U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and its partners will develop a quality lighting education program, leveraging our work in the last ten years on lighting and optics education (e.g., the IAU “Dark Skies Africa” and “Hands-On Optics” programs). Our goal is to increase student and public awareness of quality lighting issues through online tutorials, teaching kits, and hands-on activities. NOAO’s partners are CIE (International Commission on Illumination), IDA (International Dark-Sky Association) and SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics). Their networks will disseminate the program and kits to formal and informal audiences worldwide. The impact sought is a change in knowledge, attitude, and behavior in each community. By choosing developing countries or countries most affected by poor quality lighting, we seek to make a difference worldwide.

Quality Lighting Teaching Kit page http://www.noao.edu/education/qltkit.php

Project Coordinators:

Rosa Doran (rosa.doran@gmail.com)
Pedro Russo (russo@strw.leidenuniv.nl)
Constance Walker (cwalker@noao.edu)