UNAWE is an international outreach activity that uses the beauty and grandeur of the universe to inspire very young disadvantaged children. Goals are to:
broaden children's minds,
awaken their curiosity in science,
stimulate global citizenship and tolerance.
This website is dedicated to the activities and materials that UNAWE offers. These materials are sourced from an extremely dynamic network of volunteers and professionals worldwide who thereby contribute to giving children from all over the world a great experience.
For the website of the Universe Awareness Organisation, CLICK HERE.
For the website of UNAWE en Español, CLICK HERE.
Planetarium show
This excellent introduction to astronomy and time was made by students. Congratulations!
The development of Blender, our 3D software of choice, is driven by "open movie" (and "open game") projects. As Elephant's Dream, Big Buck Bunny, Yo Frankie!, and the upcoming Project Durian are produced, the artists and programmers work together to develop new tools for Blender.
Our concept of the open movie is a little different -- instead of developing software, our students are developing skills!
The Ceres Open Movie was created by participants of the Spring 2010 Blender Production Workshop. This show was built by four students, in eight hours, after only sixteen hours of instruction.
The show and its source is available to the world under the Creative Commons Attribution License!
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Full Credits: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc38njhf_158hs22qxhp
weber.edu/planetarium/ceres
Eclipses explain in Tamil
Thank you to Mr. Mani from AID India / the Tamil Nadu Science Forum.
The llama is one of the most important animals for the Incas. Its silhouette appears in the dark areas between the stars. For this reason llamas with black fur were very important in the Inca religion. Two very bright stars in the constellation of Centauri (alpha and beta) represent the black Llama’s eyes.
The Inca legend tells us that Yacana (the llama) was wandering with her baby along a river that crossed the entire sky (the Milky Way). The more she walked, the blacker she got. Her baby accompanied her throughout the sky. When the baby became hungry, Yacana fed it. When Yacana woke up, it became daytime. It is said that the man who finds himself in a place where Yacana has fed her baby will have good luck for the rest of his days.
But Yacana was just and treated everyone equally. She would not give happiness merely to one man or one woman. At night, when nobody was looking, she used to go and drink water from the oceans. She drank the water of pain, the water of sadness, the water of thirst and hunger. She drank the water of the tragedy of humankind and prevented the seas from overflowing and flooding the earth.
Interstellar Clouds of Dust and Gas
To find our way in the sky, it is convenient to imagine that the stars can be joined together to form figures and shapes representing people and animals. These figures are constellations. In contrast to other civilizations, the inhabitants of South America saw figures in the shapes of the dark spaces between the stars of the Milky Way, which they could see clearly. These dark regions in the sky are in fact enormous clouds of dust that absorb the light coming from the stars behind them.
Image: Maria Vidal
Extract of the book "Tales of the Stars"
CSIC-UNAWE 2008
ISBN 978-84-613-0420-2
Image: Maria Vidal
