For almost three weeks Cape Verdean students from Praia, island of Santiago and Mindelo in Sao Vicente were able to take a glimpse beyond the sky. All thanks to the efforts of Centro Educativo + Ciência (Mindelo, Cape Verde) the local promoter of the project, and Centro Ciência Viva de Sintra (Sintra, Portugal) that provided a portable planetarium which is a first for the region. The project reached almost 1000 children in several schools in both islands.
The project ‘A Glimpse Beyond the Sky’ was intriguing that GTTP and NUCLIO decided to follow the adventure closely. Teaming up with both the Portuguese and Cape Verdean organisations, two volunteers; Carla and Lina, were assigned to give live planetarium shows to the local students. “The fingers pointing at the sky and the sense of awe displayed by the children as we travelled through space in our planetarium was worth all the challenges and struggles that naturally arise from this sort of pioneering projects”, says Carla Gonçalves, an astronomer turned doctor that teamed up with GTTP for this project. The cultural exchange and the excitement and glowing eyes from the children was an amazing experience and the whole team fully enjoyed the warmth of Cape Verde. Volunteers are already planning to return with innovative projects such as “From This Window to the Universe”, taking astronomy outreach to hospital in-patients.
In December the GTTP team will once again be visiting the wonderful island of Sao Vicente, this time virtually, throughout the program OAD-IAU/GTTP: E-Teacher Training: Taking astronomy to the Portuguese Speaking Countries community, that will be implemented at the educational centre based in Mindelo and coordinated locally by Sandra Santos.
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