Speaker
Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
No
Level for award<br> (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD)?
No
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
No
Abstract content <br> (Max 300 words)
In this talk I will present a project targeting historically black universities at the undergraduate level, which I have been involved in as part of my internship at the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD). Our goal is to include Astronomy within the curriculum as a support to Physics teaching. In order to fulfill this objective we plan to offer course material as well as hands-on tutorials together with an instrumentation package based on off-the-shelf material. Within the framework of that project, the OAD invited lecturers from the Universities of Fort Hare, Venda, Limpopo and Zululand to attend a workshop at the OAD in October 2012. During the workshop we gave introductory talks on astronomy, and organized some hands-on activities demonstrating ways of using Astronomy as a tool to enhance Physics teaching. A discussion was initiated on how to implement it within the universities. Here I will present our project, its purpose, vision and the outcomes from the workshop. The idea behind this presentation is to engage with the members of Physics and Physics Education communities in order to take further the discussion initiated during the October workshop, on the best ways to implement this project in universities across South Africa.
