The popularisation of science is central to the culture of the citizen, and if astronomy make poets dream (and many others), astrophysics attracts young and old talents to science. To reveal in simple terms the stellar bestiary from the black holes to the quasars proceeds along this line. Black hole is still the object which is subject to most questions in any public talk on astronomy. How indeed does contemporary physics link the black hole, this stellar gravitational tomb, with the quasar, a galaxy gone mad? The tale is worth telling and makes indeed a beautiful story for contemporary young audience. Can it be told to our high school students with their modest scientific background? This is what we intend to do in this paper, spicing the sauce at the end with some new insights on the unified model of AGN.

In this paper, we describe the role astronomy has played in interesting students towards taking physics as a major subject during their final year in Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST). This has resulted into some former students from MUST taking up postgraduate studies in Astrophysics and Space Science in South African Universities. The plans to strengthen and develop Astronomy in Uganda are also discussed, and in particular, the strategies for organizing the IYA2009 are outlined.

Seventy per cent of Aboriginal students drop out of school before the end of their secondary school years and very few go on to do science at the Higher School Certificate level. As a result of this statistics reveal that only 0.003% of the 9000 university science graduates in 2005 in Australia were of Aboriginal origin. This paper discusses an astronomy project which seeks to improve the scientific literacy of Aboriginal students so as to motivate them to take up careers in science and engineering.

The history, current situation, education and future directions of modern Mongolian space science and astronomy is reviewed. This paper discusses recent efforts to develop astronomy education and research capacity in Mongolia with cooperation of the International Astronomical Union. Various capacity-building initiatives in space science including remote sensing in Mongolia are discussed.

The merging of astronomy and physics into one subject in Kazakhstan's schools has hampered the knowledge of astronomy that had been established over tha past years. It is necessary to create a new system of aspace education for schoolchildren and the system of additional education should be leading this work. Additional education of astronomy in Kazakhstan began with astronomical clubs in the 1960s. In this paper a new system of additional education of astronomy in Kazakhstan is proposed.

We describe briefly the current state of astronomical education in Ukraine, namely the secondary, higher, and post-graduating education systems. A special attention is paid to so called “scientific schools”, non-formal groups of scientists formed by recognised astronomers, which have played and continue to play an important rôle in development of the astronomy education system. Among the founders of scientific schools were the well-known professors Alexander Ya. Orlov (Odessa University), Nikolai P. Barabashov (Kharkiv University), Sergei K. Vsekhsvyatsky (Kyiv University), Semen Ya. Braude (Kharkiv Polytechnical Institute), and Vladimir P. Tsesevich (Odessa University). We also give a general review on the history of astronomy education during the 16th-18th centuries. In 2000 astronomy was reinstated into the current 12-year secondary education curriculum of Ukraine. At present, some elements of astronomical knowledge are included in the lessons of “Natural Sciences” for pupils in the 5th – 10th grades. Astronomy is included as a basic course both in general (non-specialised) schools (17 academic hours in the last 11th or 12th grade) and in lyceums of the natural sciences (34 academic hours in the 12th grade). It is included also as an optional course in the educational program of gymnasiums in humanities. Every year about 75 young persons enter the Ukrainian universities to become astronomers. Results of our monitoring of the efficiency of astronomical higher educational system indicate that about 80% of the entered university students finish their education in 5 years; 50% of those who finished the cursus were working in astronomy. Since 1992 more then 100 astronomers defend Theses of Cand. Sci. (similar to Ph.D) and about 40 astronomers defend Theses of Dr. Sci. (topmost scientific degree, similar to Dr. Hab.). One of our present-day problems is a brain drain of young scientists. About 50% of those who obtained Cand. Sci. degree work outside Ukraine. At the same time in Ukraine we have a lack of experienced persons to work in astronomical instrumentation and observations.

The centre of astronomy in Tajikistan is the Institute of Astrophysics of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan. This institute carries out scientific research and contributes to the preparation of the astronomical staff and to astronomical education. The reform of education in Tajikistan continues and now astronomy is studied in schools (together with physics) and at universities. The Tajik State Pedagogical University resumed in 2007 the training of teachers in physics and astronomy. Since 1999 the Tajik National University (TNU) offers a a specialty in astronomy. In 2006 is restored the Small Academy of Sciences (SAS) of Tajikistan. There is a planetarium in Khujand and in 2006 the Institute of Astrophysics, TNU and the Astronomical Society of Tajikistan, along with the support IBSP/UNESCO, organised the Training Methodical Center (TMC) “TAJASTRO” at the Hisar astronomical observatory for students, graduate students, young scientists, and teachers at secondary schools.

Since 1995, the University the Carabobo, in Venezuela, has come developing a program of astronomical popularization and learning Astronomy using the Non formal education methods. A synopsis of the activities is presented. We will also discuss some conceptual aspects about the extension of the knowledge like supplementary function of the investigation and the university teaching. We illustrate the characteristics of the communication with an example of lectures and printed material. The efficiency of the heuristic arguments could be evaluated through a ethnology study. In that order of ideas, we show some images of the activities of astronomical popularization. We can see the population and great concurrence with chronological (and cultural) heterogeneity. We conclude that the Non formal education, structured with characteristic different to the usual educational instruction, constitutes a successful strategy in the diffusion and the communicating astronomy.

How can teachers and researchers contribute to a new world-wide way to teach astronomy? The Hands-On-Universe group proposes multi-media tools, from remote telescopes to image processing, inspired by the most recent research activities in astronomy and astrophysics. Teachers and students can learn, in a quantitative way, to analyse images and spectra using free data sets and softwares available at the website www.eu-hou.org.

The International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) is an annual scientific-educating event for students of the junior high-school classes, aged 14–18 years. The Euro-Asian Astronomical Society founded the IAO in 1996. The Olympiad includes an intellectual competition between these students. The style of the problems is aimed at developping the imagination, creativity and independent thinking.

The popular event Nuits des étoiles has become in France the summer encounter with the sky. More than 400 events are set up for three consecutive days each year: several thousands of voluntary organisers invite more and more people to observe the heavens and discover astronomy. Each summer, those collective star parties reach about one hundred thousand people, several millions of sky maps are printed and distributed by newspapers and the associated TV live program broadcast by France 2 channel interested 1 to 3 millions spectators. Since 1991, Nuits des étoiles has helped to develop organisations at the local level and increased the stakeholders' interest in general public awareness. It contributed in France to strengthen and professionalise an astronomical leisure offer.

“Astrophysique sur Mesure” (astrophysics made-to-measure) is a set of e-learning programmes started 4 years ago at the Paris Observatory. In order to deliver attractive and efficient programmes, we have added many multimedia tools to usual lectures: animations, Java applets. The programmes are presented on two different platforms. The first one offers the content of all the lectures in free access. A second platform with restricted access is provided to registered students taking part in the e-learning program and benefiting from the help of tutors. The development of these programs helps to increase the sphere of influence of astronomy taught at the Paris Observatory, hence to increase the presence of astronomy in various degree courses. Instead of teaching classical astronomy lectures to a happy few, we can bring astronomy and astrophysics to a wider audience.

We relate the success story of an amateur astronomy association based at Constantine, which has spearheaded the efforts of spreading astronomy and scientific culture in Algeria. This association has organised throughout the past decade many activities from large national yearly gatherings to a weekly radio program, through public sighting campaigns. It has been instrumental in the establishment of a pluri-university graduate study program in astrophysics, the so called Ecole Doctorale d'Astrophysique (EDA), the first of its kind in Algeria. We describe in particular how astronomers from various parts of Algeria involved in amateur astronomy have known each other, and banded together to the point of constituting a critical size group able to set up such a national graduate program with plans for the establishment of the first observatory in our country, the Aurès Observatory in Eastern Algeria Aurès mountain range. A strong interest for the project has been shown by the astronomical community, some site testing undertaken, and international collaboration sought. With some dedicated support, its foundation could take place within the year 2009. Could IAY2009 be turned into an annus mirabilis for Algeria and a showcase for the astronomy community worldwide with behind it a textbook case of synergy between amateur astronomy and academic endeavor in the astronomical sciences?

Shortcomings in current science outreach contribute to a disconnection between science and society; prompting new requirements in thinking about what science outreach is and how it is planned and implemented. It is proposed here that central to successful outreach should be focus on identifying and communicating value in, and the relevance of, science; rather than necessarily attempting to inspire interest in, or understanding of science. This, coupled to world coordinated identification of key science outreach directives, messages and plans point to more effective science outreach relevant to the global community.

The interest to astronomy has incredibly risen in the younger generation of Iranians during the last two decades. By the end of the devastating war with Iraq, science popularisation activities started again in Iran and with only a handful of astronomers and few dozens of serious amateur astronomers in the whole country in late 1980s now there are thousands of amateur astronomers (60% female on average) and over 100 professional astronomers propelling the fun and science of astronomy in the society.

A campaign of the Star Week, set as August 1 – 7, has been started in 1995 throughout various life-learning facilities. Astronomical facilities including planetariums, science museums, and public observatories has been participating in this campaign, together with amateur astronomers clubs or private observatories. More than 300 astronomical events such as star watching parties were coordinated for general public every year. The Star Week has been grown up to one of the most successful campaigns not only for for astronomy but also for basic sciences in Japan over this 15 years. In this paper, a brief history and the present status of the Star Week are introduced together with the with some statistics.

Working within a large geographic area, McDonald Observatory lacks the resources to send staff to present professional development workshops to teachers – and only limited numbers of teachers have the resources to attend workshops at our observatory. Our solution is the development of a new program to bring the workshop to teachers in their own communities through videoconferencing. Each workshop location has a co-facilitator who prepared for his/her duties through an orientation/training session held at McDonald Observatory. At the observatory, they experienced a variety of activities and selected the ones most suitable for the grade-levels of the teachers in their region; they recruit the teachers for the local workshop. Each videoconference session includes pre/post assessment of the participants, an interactive videoconference with an expert presenter, and assistance from the co-facilitator who manages the materials and assists with the activities. Through use of this technology, we expect to reach 500 teachers. An independent evaluator is preparing formative and summative evaluation for the project.

Recent studies have shown that not only primary school students but also their future teachers reach science courses with pre-constructed and consistent models of the world surrounding them. These ideas include many misconceptions which turn out to be robust and hence make difficult an appropriate teaching-learning process. We have designed some tools (and show here results with a questionnaire) that proved helpful in putting in evidence some of the most frequently used alternative models on a few basic astronomical notions. We have tested this questionnaire with preservice elementary teachers from various normal schools in Buenos Aires and made a first analysis of the results. The collection of data recovered so far shows that some non-scientific conceptions are indeed part of the prospective teachers' (scientific) background and, therefore, that the issue deserves special attention during their formal training.