Teach tolerance. Inspire awe. Instill self-confidence. These are among the goals of Universe Awareness (UNAWE), an international outreach program that targets disadvantaged children. Pilot projects are getting started in several countries, and UNAWE organizers aim to have robust programs in place in several developing countries and in the ghettos of a handful of European countries by 2009, as part of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU’s) International Year of Astronomy.
UNAWE was the brainchild of George Miley, an astronomer at Leiden University in the Netherlands. “The idea is to use inspirational parts of astronomy to broaden young kids’ minds. If kids see from age four onwards that the universe is very big and very beautiful, it will help them grow up to be more tolerant individuals and to realize that there is something beyond their own village or their own district in the city,” says Miley. “We are not trying to...
