Timor-Leste National Commission for UNESCO (TLNCU) and its science division, known as SESIM, organized the project “Strengthening the Knua Prátika and nurturing future astronomers for Lorosa’e Land (Timor-Leste)”. Through this project, we ran a workshop with the theme “Workshop for Developing Astronomy Education for the future astronomers and scientists in Timor-Leste”. The workshop is specifically designed for physics teachers at the high school level across thirteen municipalities. This unique training is a result of the collaboration between TLNCU and Institut Teknologi Sumatra (ITERA) and with funding from by the International Astronomical Union – Office of Astronomy for Development (IAU-OAD). There were 30 participants composed of twenty-four (24) teachers and 6 SESIM/KNTLU who attended the five-day workshop from July 1-5, 2024.
Aims of the astronomy workshop:
• Improving the knowledge and skills of teachers in Timor-Leste about astronomy
• Increasing the confidence of teacher to teach astronomy and science and creating teaching materials and activities.
• Increasing the connection of teachers between different municipalities to the Knua Prátika (KP) in their municipality to share ideas and experience.
Some of the exciting activities were introduced during the 5-day workshop, such as general concepts of astronomy, including local traditional knowledge and stories of Astronomy; meteorology, cloud windows, website and android application of weather forecast; creating the Sun Clock/Sundial (equatorial), introducing the website of shadow day in Timor-Leste; the coordinates of earth and space, by using sextant and inclinometer and GPS; moon phases; the relation between the moon and tides; operate the telescope for sky observation, sun spots, android application for sky observation, sky map, astrophotography, light pollution; eclipses, the website for tracking the eclipses; etc.
TLNCU-SESIM hopes the teachers can share the knowledge that they have learned with their students in the school. We are optimistic that the students from the participating schools will benefit from the topics that their teachers learned from this workshop. This hope for student benefits is a driving force behind our efforts to improve science education in Timor-Leste.
The team will also organise another 3 days of training at 9 other Knua Prátika (laboratories) located in nine other municipalities and also a 1-day science exposition for students at the one school close to the Knua Prátika. Additionally, will organize an activity for observing the Solar Zenith days (the 2 annual days when you “stand on your own shadow”).