Education is training, part of which is being able to handle information. At meetings such as this, one learns new ways to teach and to adapt ideas to one's culture in a way they can have a greater influence on the lay person (Pasachoff and Percy, 1990; Percy, 1996). A reason to promote science popularization is to give people a chance to experience the pleasure of understanding.

The Star Centre is a national astronomy and space science base which

1. facilitates public access to news and information

2. promotes public awareness, interest, enjoyment and understanding.

The Star Centre meets these twin aims by providing an information service which can be accessed in a variety of ways and by offering a menu of public observing events.

The concept of a national astronomy base developed as part of the Centre for Science Educations growing portfolio of initiatives in both the formal education sector and the wider umbrella of the Public Understanding of Science. In December 1996 the Star Centre was launched with the aid of a Royal Society COPUS development grant and matching funding from Sheffield Hallam University.

The objective of this work is to make known the astronomical activities in the region of Campinas, the process of developing municipal cooperation and the general conclusions that reflect this process.

This research has been done by means of interviews with people related to the creation of astronomical centers in the region of the city of Campinas that is located in the state of São Paulo in Brasil (Fig. 1 and 2).

The conditions studied are related with this region but many ideas could be used in developing countries or others.

This project had two principal objectives: to communicate safe methods to observe the Sun, so as to prevent ophthalmological accidents to people during the total solar eclipse of 3rd November 1994, and to collaborate with the primary school teachers in the science classroom, illustrating the classes, motivating the students to observe sky phenomena.

In January 1993, a commission called “ECLIPSE 94“Executive Commission, of the Brazilian Astronomical Society was created to coordinate assistance with arrangements for observing the total solar eclipse of 3rd November 1994, that in Brazil was total in the western part of Paraná State, in Santa Catarina State and in a Rio Grande do Sul zone. Professional astronomers from Brazil and from several parts of the world were mobilized to observe this eclipse.

Solar eclipses draw the attention of the general public to celestial events in the countries from which they are visible, and broad public education programs are necessary to promote safe observations. Most recently, a subcommittee of IAU Commission 46 composed of Julieta Fierro (from the National University of Mexico), the Canadian professor of optometry Ralph Chou (from the University of Waterloo) and me provided information about safe observations of the 24 October 1995 eclipse to people in Pakistan, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Guam. An important point is that there are advantages to seeing eclipses, including inspiration to students, and that people must always be given correct information. If scare techniques are used to warn people off eclipses, when it is later found out that the eclipse was not dangerous and, indeed, was spectacular, these students and other individuals will not trust warnings for truly hazardous activities like smoking, drugs, and behavior that puts one at risk for AIDS.

Let us begin by defining “amateur astronomer”. According to a dictionary, an amateur astronomer is “someone who loves astronomy, and cultivates it as a hobby”. At IAU colloquium 98 (The Contributions of Amateurs to Astronomy), Williams (1988) discussed this issue at length. He proposed that, to be an amateur astronomer, one must be an astronomer - able to do astronomy with some degree of skill; he then defined an amateur astronomer as “someone who carries out astronomy with a high degree of skill, but not for pay”.

Astronomy is an important science in understanding a human environment. However, it is thought by most politicians, economists, and members of the public that astronomy is a pure science having no contribution to daily human activities except a few matters relating to time. The Japanese government is studying a reorganisation of our school system to have 5 school days per week, instead of 6 days per week, and this July its committee made a recommendation to reduce school hours for science and set up new courses for practical computers and environmental science. I currently made a proposal. It is very difficult for most of the school pupils, who will have non-scientific jobs, to understand science courses currently taught in school, because each science is taught independently from the other sciences. Therefore, their knowledge of sciences obtained during their school period does not greatly help their understanding of global environmental problems.

Carter Observatory is the gazetted National Observatory of New Zealand, and opened in 1941 December. From the start, the main function of the Observatory was to provide for the astronomical needs of the citizens of, and visitors to, the Wellington region, and today this remains one of its four recognised functions (Orchiston and Dodd, 1995). The other three are to conduct astronomical research of international significance; provide a national astronomy education service for school students, teachers, and trainee teachers; and assist in the preservation of New Zealand's astronomical heritage.

School education in Latvia, as in many other countries, is divided into two stages: primary and secondary education. Primary education is compulsory. Every year 30 000 new school children start attending primary school. This is a potential audience that can study astronomy fundamentals. During first grade studies school children learn the basics of natural science which include some elements of astronomy. These lessons are given once a week. At this stage children's interest in the Universe is great; therefore the most active teachers use some out of curriculum activities to give the schoolchildren an idea about the stars, planets and other celestial bodies. The science curriculum itself contains very few elements of astronomy (Karule, 1995). Even more many teachers have problems teaching science at the elementary school, because they are afraid that it is too sophisticated. This situation should be corrected, but at the moment no teacher training in science is planned.

Sydney Observatory is a museum of astronomy and a public observatory. It is Australia's oldest existing observatory and is now a branch of the Powerhouse Museum, the largest museum in the southern hemisphere. With 65,000 visitors each year, the observatory is popular with the public. Visitors can come during the day to see exhibits and audiovisuals and in the evenings on telescope viewing sessions. They can also take part in school holiday workshops, adult education courses or a telescope-making course. In addition, many school groups come along during the school terms to extend the astronomical knowledge of their students. Other professional services provided by the observatory include an annual guidebook with up-to-date information for the sky as seen from Sydney and an astronomical information service for the public and the media.

Like many research institutions, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysicsf (CfA), has been actively engaged in education and public outreach activities for many years. The Harvard University Department of Astronomy, the formal higher education arm of the CfA, offers an undergraduate concentration and a doctoral program. In our Science Education Department, educational researchers manage ten programs that address the needs of teachers and students (K-12 and college), through advanced technology, teacher enhancement programs, and the development of curriculum materials. The Editorial and Public Affairs Department offers several public lecture series, recorded sky information, children's nights, and runs the Whipple Observatory Visitors Center in Amado, AZ. In this environment of successful programs, the High Energy Astrophysics (HEA) division, one of seven research divisions at the CfA, has initiated, or partnered with other institutions, development of several new education and outreach programs. Some of these programs involve partnerships with the education community, but all of them have been initiated by and involve scientists.

The experience of working with amateur astronomers in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and in Ukraine shows a noticeable lack of literature, especially educational and methodological. The amateurs, possessing an observational base, do not know what best to observe at a given moment, and those, who are not yet ready for practical work in astronomy, do not know how to be prepared.

The Humble Space Telescope project aims to launch a small space telescope for educational and recreational purposes, in time for the New Millennium.

The arrival of the 3rd Millennium, accompanied in the United Kingdom by a Millennium Commission distributing 250 million per year of National Lottery funds for good causes and imaginative projects which would otherwise require direct funding by the taxpayer, provides a unique opportunity to design, build and operate a small but capable version of the pioneering Hubble Space Telescope.

In July 1994, a leading British newspaper with a long history of covering developments in science, launched a competition for members of the public to propose science projects to be funded by the Millennium Commission.

Astronomy knows no geographical borders - the sky is the same over all countries. However, while professional astronomers have long established bi- and multilateral collaborations, many of which take place under the auspices of the IAU, few similar schemes exist within astronomy education.

Now, following the establishment in 1995 of the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE), this situation is about to change on that continent. This new association offers an efficient platform for astronomy educators at various levels - in particular at the approx. 7000 secondary schools in this geographical area - to interact in all related matters, e.g. curricula, all kinds of teaching materials, student exchanges and other events. Together with the European Commission and some of the professional institutes, EAAE is now planning a major, international event in November 1996.

Project ASTRO is designed to improve astronomy education and science literacy in grades 4-9 by creating effective working partnerships between teachers/youth leaders and astronomers (both professional and amateur). Key elements of the program include:

1. • training the teachers/youth leaders and astronomers together in inquiry-based “hands-on, minds-on” learning activities

2. • encouraging an active working partnership between the astronomer and the teacher/youth leader

3. • encouraging multiple visits by the astronomer to the classroom or youth group meetings.

Informal and formal astronomy education is present through many channels: newspapers and TV; amateur associations; clubs and science associations; at school at any level. The teachers are not only the main agents of the educational process at school, but they are also very active in extra-curricular activities: they run clubs, educational projects etc.

These activities are present everywhere in the world, as can be seen from the reading of the National Reports published every 3 years by Commission 46 “Astronomy Teaching” of the International Astronomical Union and published in its Newsletter.

We are all aware of the fact that Astronomy teaching is not an easy task for many different reasons which we are going to examine during this Colloquium. The present contribution focuses on one of these reasons we consider of major importance for Astronomy in the school: Teacher Training.

Teacher training has been debated extensively for a long time and discussion is being presently livened up.

Carter Observatory is the National Observatory of New Zealand and was opened in 1941. For more than ten years the Observatory has maintained an active education program for visiting school groups (see Andrews, 1991), and education now forms one of its four functions. The others relate to astronomical research; public astronomy; and the preservation of New Zealands astronomical heritage (see Orchiston and Dodd, 1995).

Since the acquisition of a small Zeiss planetarium and associated visitor centre in 1992, the public astronomy and education programs at the Carter Observatory have witnessed a major expansion (see Orchiston, 1995; Orchiston and Dodd, 1996). A significant contributing factor was the introduction by the government of a new science curriculum into New Zealand schools in 1995 (Science in the New Zealand Curriculum, 1995). “Making Sense of Planet Earth and Beyond” comprises one quarter of this curriculum, and the “Beyond” component is astronomy.

In 1981, in response to growing concerns that the United States was falling behind the rest of the world educationally, the federal Secretary of Education created a national commission on excellence in education. This commission was charged with gathering data about the status of U.S. education compared to the rest of the developed world and to define the problems which would have to be faced to successfully pursue the course of excellence in education.

We consider that one of the most important aspects in the harmonic development of a person is his relationship with the natural environment in which he lives: in that environment he initially trains and enlarges his curiosity and the capacity for astonishment, both innate properties of human beings. It is so much so that we could locate the germ of all creative future activities, scientific or otherwise, in what happens with those characteristics during the years of childhood, that if fully developed will help children to become sensitive and critical adults. So we consider it necessary to generate the mechanisms to reinforce the sensibility, the critical observation and the interaction with natural phenomena, in a systematic way, as we propose in “Plaza del Cielo”.