The “Science with SALT” meeting in March 1998 opened avenues of cooperation between SAAO and the University of Texas at Austin in education and public outreach. This paper will review past interactions and future plans. SAAO personnel have visited the HET and McDonald Observatory and have taken part in planning meetings for the Texas Astronomy Education Center museum area and educational programming. Discussions concerning the extension of the daily radio show StarDate (English), Universo (Spanish) and Sternzeit (German) versions to a southern hemisphere version are underway. In addition, we are cooperatively planning a workshop to discuss an international collaborative for educational outreach for state-of-the-art telescopes for which a regional collaborative in southwestern U.S. (SCOPE) serves as a model. The towns of Sutherland and Fort Davis are discussing forming a “twin-town” relationship. Projects and plans that link cutting-edge astronomical research to classrooms and the public will be reviewed.

Promotion of astronomy in Arab countries is facing many scientific and technical problems. Teaching astronomy starts very late in schools, with very simple and limited courses. Many teachers lack a suitable astronomical background, which can lead to incorrect understanding by students of many astronomical ideas and phenomena. Teaching astronomy at higher levels is also very limited, for example: aomng the 16 universities in Egypt, astronomy is taught in only two faculties of science, just for two years. Graduate students find many difficulties in obtaining jobs related to astronomical activities and this is a serious limitation on the attraction of the study of astronomy. On the other hand, astronomical institutions are suffering from a serious lack of the new sophisticated equipment, while the budget allotted for maintenance is very small, and there is a serious shortage of technical staff. The training of astronomers and technicians is badly needed, since good research work depends on modern technological equipment and the complicated software packages used in controlling such equipment and in data analysis. Good libraries are needed for promotion of astronomy especially, the Internet facilities available for the staff is very limited. The effects of culture are very clear; many authorities in developing countries believe that astronomy is a luxury. Finally, most of astronomers are engaged with a lot of administration for all matters, so the free time left for science is very limited.

In recent years, a daily increasing movement of non-professional astronomers has become the center of development for astronomy, a subject practically absent now from the national education system in Cuba. A key role in this movement has been played by the professional staff of the Department of Astronomy of the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy. A direct outcome of this joint effort with amateurs is the research on meteors and comets, presented at two national and one international scientific meeetings.

Throughout the last three millennia the area of Jordan, as part of the Arab World, has a rich history in the foundation and development of astronomy. Jordan today is pro-active in developing community programmes of education. I will describe the outreach programmes and community participation that I experienced during my attendence in Jordan at a conference timed to coincide with the Leonid Meteor Storm of November 1999.

Spurred by the leaping developments of research activities (SMA, TAOS, AMIBA), Taiwan is catching up in virtually all aspects of its education in astronomy. The first astronomy research institute was established by the Academia Sinica about 10 years ago, which catalyzed within two years the first graduate school of astronomy, as well as an elaborate astronomy museum. Since then astronomy education at all levels, from colleges to primary schools, has been booming. More than a dozen universities are offering astronomy courses, and two more graduate schools will soon be instituted. Textbooks get written, and books on popular science, either translated or composed by local authors, have mushroomed on the market. I will outline these ongoing activities along with plans on the horizon.

I describe an interactive unit for teaching/learning planetary orbits at secondary level. The unit consists of a pre-test, activites related to the planetary orbits and a post-test. The pre-test is designed to modulate the activities to suit the needs of the students. The activities are (1) Trajectory of a particle in a gravitational field when the field is constant, and when it varies with distance (invoking a fictitious planet WonderX); (2) Plotting the orbit of a planet round the sun starting from select initial conditions and discovering Kepler’s laws; (3) Plotting orbits with force laws containing terms like 1/r3 and 1/r4 and discovering precession. Students work through graded steps. To help them, simple numerical algorithms and computer programs have been developed as they are not yet comfortable with calculus. A post-test gauges the progress of the students for a possible revisit to the topic. Such units can be very effective in teaching basic astronomy in developing countries.

Astronomy in México has an ancient tradition, reinforced during the twentieth century by groups working in theoretical and observational astronomy. During the 1990s, the Great Millimeter Telescope (a single 50-m antenna) has been approved, and a 6-m infrared telescope is under study. Graduate and undergraduate programs must be improved to prepare future Mexican and Latin American astronomers to take advantage of these facilities. To meet the challenge, two traditional Mexican programs (Instituto de Astronomia-UNAM and Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica-INAOE) are updating their graduate programs. Similarly, the Departamento de Astronomía de la Universidad de Guanajuato is joining physicists in the first undergraduate program in México in physics and engineering with an option in astrophysics. This will prepare students for industry, academia or national laboratories, either in physics or astronomy. Jobs in academia have been scarce; many students had to give up their goals after one or two postdoctoral positions. Graduate and undergraduate programs must adjust, by broadening the scope of present programs so that students are better prepared for other job opportunities. We present a B.Sc. program designed by astronomers and physicists to try to address some of these concerns and to prepare the students for either continuing with graduate studies or finding employment in an ever-changing job market. (Co-author is Victor Migenes, Guamajato, México.)

In this work we present characteristics of the Romanian higher education related to the study of Astronomy. In spite of Romanian economic problems, opportunities for Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree (at “Babes-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca) and Ph.D. degree are provided for students enrolled in the Faculties of Mathematics or Physics. General regulations, description of courses, research resources and job opportunities are also described and discussed in this paper.

Thailand is one of the developing countries which tries to advance its economy, technology and science. Education in astronomy is considered a supporting factor; astronomy is a basic science from which the young generation can learn to understand and to conserve mother nature and at the same time develop analytical thinking. The poster reports the present developments in astronomical education in Thailand which includes (1) current astronomy education in school and university; (2) educational activities outside school; (3) development of programs for teaching astronomy in school (including teacher training); (4) the access of educational resources via internet. Proposals for future development and collaborations will be presented and discussed. (Co-authors are B. Soonthornthum and T. Kirdkao.)

Great cultures have created language. They have discovered its strength among other reasons for education. For a long time the Bible was one of the few books available in western culture, its influence is beyond any doubt. Many developing nations have no science books in their mother tongue. They might carry a few translations but these do not convey the local culture so it is harder for students to grasp the concepts and to build on what they know. Books, even if they are extremely simple, should be written in local languages because that will facilitate the conveying of knowledge and the creation of scientific culture. In the books examples that pertain to every day local life must be given, in particular examples that have to do with women. Women play a central role in developing nations by child bearing; if they become literate they will influence enormously the quality of their children’s education, in particular their science comprehension. In México a collection that includes astronomy books has recently been edited by the National Council for Culture and Arts. The books are small and light, which encourages middle-school students to carry them around and read them while traveling in public transportation, such as the subway. Every other page is a new subject, that carries illustrations, abstracts and conclusions. The astronomy books are on search for extraterrestrial life, the stars and the universe. These books are distributed nation-wide and are inexpensive. They have been written by Mexican astronomers.

Here I will describe the inclusion of astronomy and astrophysics in College level courses of Bangalore University. I will describe the role of the Inter -University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) at Pune in making available instruments such as photometers and CCD cameras at low cost to aid teaching of astronomy as well as the running of a large number of training programmes for teachers and students. I will also describe some outstanding problems and suggested solutions.

The Summer Schools have been organised by the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) for European teachers. The first was organised in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain, the second was organised in 1998 in Pregene, Italy and the third in 1999, during the week of the eclipse in Briey, Prance, on the line of total darkness. We had a cloudy eclipse, but fortunately we could observe it. The fourth one was held in July 2000 in Tavira, Portugal. About 50 participants are involved in each Summer School. In the last, participants came from 14 countries. The activities are organised in General Lectures, Working Groups and Workshops for reduced groups and day and night Observations. To increase communication, each Summer School has three official languages: the language of the host country, English and another well-known by the participants. The proceedings are published beforehand with all the contents to facilitate participation. Each paper appears in English and another language.

We organized the Leonids observing network that comprised of 276 observation teams consisting of about 3,000 senior high-school students in Japan on Nov. 17 1998. We counted the visible meteors with our naked eyes. It was a simple method, but the many data enabled us to discuss the structure of the dust trail. However, the base-line is so short that we could not discuss the structure in full detail. In 1999, we organized a worldwide network of senior high-school students. The network is comprised of 307 teams from 23 countries. The base-line of our new project is the size of the Earth. We succeeded in making 20 hours continuous observations with this network. One of the observational teams in Tanzania encountered the Leonid meteor storm. We report on the scientific results and the educational aspects of these projects. (Web site: www.leonids.net/) (Leonids ‘98-’99 staff – co-authors – are A. Miyashita, M. Okyudo, H. Agata, T. Mizuno, T. Hamane K. Watanabe of Japan, C. Pennypaker, A. Gould, K. McCarron, G. Reagan and K. Meredith, of the U.S.A.)

The pulsation phenomenon is inherent to most types of object and it plays a great role at certain stages in the evolution of objects in the universe. That is why students must study this phenomenon in the framework of laboratory hours. Often the study of these phenomena is reduced to an analysis of some differential equations with variable coefficients. A class of these equations is connected with the stability problem of the oscillations of self-gravitating systems (S. Nuritdinov, Sov. Astron., 1985, 29, 293). In order to carry out this laboratory work every student is required to compose a computer program using the periodical solution stability method and the parameter resonance theory. The program will find the critical amplitude of the pulsation and some dependences between physical parameters.

The current situation in astronomy and astronomical education over the territory of the Former Soviet Union is traced. New facilities for radio-astronomy are being put into work – the most important of them being the two coupled 32-m dishes, VLBI network “Quasar”; a number of observatories are acquiring an international status (in the frame of CIS); The Internet is becoming available for an increasing number of astronomical institutions. Azerbaijan astronomers have overcome their isolation from the rest of the world and cooperate actively with the astronomical community.

An approach is developed, in which the major dynamical and physical concepts of astronomy and basic space science are used, to build a scheme (prototype model) for education on the undergraduate level. A way to teach different theories and observational facts is shown, in which those concepts are built in or used; within the suggested educational scheme. The computational techniques which are needed in astronomy and basic space science are disscussed at which steps through the suggested educational scheme might be introduced.

Astronomy studies have been developed in Algeria since 1890 when the Algiers Observatory was built. Several instruments were soon installed on the site and have contributed to many scientific projects such as the international sky-map program. However, the observatory activities were suddenly interrupted by the departure of all French astronomers in 1962. Twenty years were needed before new astronomy programs were developed at Algiers observatory. They are principally based on imaging through atmospheric turbulence, solar physics and studies of pulsating variable stars. Only one observational program, however, has so far been developed. This consists of solar observations in the framework of an international program to survey the Sun’s radius. The astronomers now form a relatively important team since more than twelve researchers have permanent status. This is a good start taking into account the fact that astronomy is not taught in Algerian universities. We will begin first by giving an overview of the history of Algiers Observatory, including its instrumentation. We will then present the existing Algerian team and all their current scientific work and proposed projects.

The Kottamia 1.88-m reflecting telescope in Egypt is the largest in the Middle East and North Africa. An extensive upgrading programe has been undertaken for this telescope to increase its efficiency. A new Zerodur optical system has been delivered by Carl Zeiss, Germany, and a new CCD system including an acquisition Camera Tek 1024 x 1024 pixels, with pixel size 24 x 24 micron and LN cooling, and an offset guiding camera Kodak 1080 x 1024 pixels with pixel size 16 xl6 micron and thermoelectric cooling. This CCD system has been attached to the Newtonian focus for direct imaging with scale 22.5 arcsec mm-1. The aluminizing plant has also been refurbished by Balzer, the new pumping system can accommodate mirrors up to 2m. The unit is supplied with a microprocessor, which controls and checks all recoating steps, closes all valves and stops the operation in any emergency. A Cassegrain spectrograph (donation from Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Japan) will be attached to the telescope, after modification, for use with a CCD camera instead of the image-intensifier used before. This spectrograph will be used to obtain medium-dispersion and low dispersion spectra for faint stars and galaxies down to 15th magnitude.

Astronomical researches in Tajikistan are carried out by the Institute of Astrophysics, Tajik Academy of Sciences. The main scientific fields of investigation are physics and dynamics of asteroids, comets and meteors, variable stars and observations of artificial Earth satellites. The Institute has three observational stations: the Gissar observatory (at an altitude 730 m above sea-level) with photographic fireball and meteor patrols, a 70-cm reflector, a 40-cm Zeiss astrograph, a high-precision astronomical telescope (D=1 m, F=0.75 m), etc.; the Sanglokh observatory (at an altitude 2300 m above sea-level) with a Ritchey-Chretien 1-m telescope and 0.6-m reflector by Carl Zeiss; the Pamir observatory (at an altitude 4350 m above sea-level) with a 70-cm reflector. In 1999 the Department of Astronomy was restored in the Tajik State National University and the first students were admitted to this university for the astronomical profession.