Mponda Malozo, an amateur astronomer, works with the Tanzanian Ministry of Agriculture as an environmental and agriculture expert, is coordinator for Universe Awareness-Tanzania, and is the Tanzania coordinator of Astronomers Without Borders (AWB), and the Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) and Star Peace in Tanzania. Chuck and Susan Ruehle are trained teachers, retired Lutheran pastors, and thefounders of AWB's Telescopes to Tanzania. The authors are collaborating with a Tanzanian non-governmental organization in the development of a Center for Science Education and Observatory. The authors contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Four years ago, Chuck and Susan Ruehle went on a mission trip to Tanzania to visit schools, hospitals, orphanages, clinics and churches. Everyone in the eight-member delegation talked about what they were going to take for the schools they were going to visit, and being visual astronomers in Racine, Wisc., the Ruehles took three small telescopes . They shared a few simple supplies for teaching science and for observing the night sky with schools and communities and people were very interested and committed to using those tools.

Through Astronomers without Borders, the Ruehles were introduced to Mponda Malozo, and together they planned a two-week teacher training event using astronomy as a vehicle for teaching science, math and geography. In a teacher training session, one teacher stated: "It sounds like you are saying that the sun is a star." It was that single comment followed by myriad more that committed the Ruehles to working with teachers to build a better understanding of the universe.

From that two week experience, the vision for the Center for Science Education and Observatory for northeast Tanzania was born.

Now, that center is poised to become a reality. The center demonstrates how classroom-taught theories can be transformed into student-motivated explorations of science questions. Astronomy will become the center's tool to explain the underlying principles of science, math and engineering disciplines.

In June 2014, a specially selected group of teachers, scientists and education officers will gather near Arusha, Northern Tanzania, to develop an astro-science model for the nation and as a model to be shared throughout Africa. As for the facility itself, the center has been using a donated office facility with space for workshops and secure storage for science materials but teachers and students are waiting for the center's centerpiece, a 12-inch Cave Cassegrain telescope being refurbished and readied for transport from the United States.

Below are our personal thoughts about the effort, and if you wish to support the project, you can learn more on our donation site.

Mponda Malozo

Living in a land where the majority of people are trying to attain the basic needs of life, changing the archaic lecture-based education system is perceived as prestigious and too expensive.

Looking at the history of Tanzania, very few people have managed to surface and give back to society. Even teachers, who are paid very small salaries, must devote precious preparation and learning time to bringing additional resources for their families' incomes.

Read the original here:

The Need for Astronomy: Teaching Science in Tanzania (Op-Ed)