Universe Awareness Romania has been busy this summer, organising and attending lots of exciting astronomy-based events around the country. The team started the UNAWE Summer activities at the ARTmania festival in Sibiu, took a trip to the Techschool camp and finished with a visit to the Green Bee project. All of the activities were designed to raise interest in astronomy among young people.
UNAWE Romania began their summer at ARTmania, an art festival held between 6–12 August in Sibiu, at the heart of Transylvania. The festival attracted almost 12,000 visitors year alone, with people travelling from all over of Romania and the rest of Europe. ARTmania focuses mainly on expression by music but supports other creative activities and topics too, including Astronomy. During the 6-day festival UNAWE Romania joined a cosmic event called “The Perseids – stars rain”, during which the team aired a number of astronomy documentaries and offered a series of workshops to the public.
Later in the month the team travelled East to their next destination, the Techschool camp in Bran. The camp invites the country’s most creative children to spend a week learning about programming, robotic and astronomy. Our team took part in the astronomy evening on 31 August, which saw a guest appearance from Adrian Sönke from the Astronomic Observatory in Romania's capital, Bucharest. Sönke took the children on a virtual tour of the Universe, followed by a session of real astronomical observations.
What better way to end a summer packed with astronomy fun than with than with a trip through the universe? The Green Bee project takes the children on a journey through the space in search of a habitable planet. Using a spaceship simulation the project aims to teach children aged 6–14 about the importance of protecting the environment using an adventure in space. The UNAWE Romania team visited the Green Bee spacecraft in Tineretului park, Bucharest and met some of the new cadets. At the end of the mission the children had a choice of activities, build their own origami rocket or look at the Sun through a telescope.
The Green Bee project is running until 22 October 2012, at Tineretului park, Bucharest. Entry is free, find out more on the project website.
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