Khagol Bulletin # 132 (Apr 2024) - ENG

| 17 | KHAG L | No. 132 - APRIL 2024 Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) Center, India Astronomy Centre for Educators 1. Objective: Professionalize astronomy education The OAE Center India also organised a teacher training program at IUCAA from 16 to 17 February 2024, targeted towards The OAE Center India funded the IAU teacher training programselected as part of the OAE TTP 2023 on Feb 20-22, 2024, organised by RAEC Niruj Mohan together with Jayant Ganguly fromthe Regional Science Centre in Calicut in the southern part of India. Thirty teachers attended the workshop. The primary objective of the training program was to familiarise participating teachers with recent advancements in astronomy, presenting information in a systematic and engaging manner. To achieve this, the program utilised low-cost education kits, models, activity sheets, image and data analysis, and sky observation sessions facilitated by astronomy educators and astronomers. Additionally, the program aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of introducing various astronomical events and phenomena to students to ensure a comprehensive understanding and retention of the subjectmatter. ResourceTranslations OAE Center India has prepared a translated version of the astronomy literacy book called Big Ideas in Astronomy. The OAE Centre India has published and procured the following books during this quarter: teachers from Grades 5- 10. It covered various topics taught in the school curriculum, emphasising the basics, addressing misconceptions, and using hands-on activities. Forty-six teachers attended the program. • Big Ideas in Astronomy (Hindi and English versions) 2. Objective: Provide access to good resources • Jantar Mantar observatories (Marathi, Hindi and English versions) • Anandi Khagol Goshti The procured books will be distributed to school libraries within the Pune and rural regions, together with supporting activities for the upcoming quarter. The OAE Center India personnel at HBCSE continue to produce and release a series of educational videos in astronomy to make astronomy concepts more accessible since January 2024. 3. Ob j ec t i ve : Promot e as t ronomy i n curricula 4. Objective:OAENetworking The OAE Center India continued its work in education research with the ongoing baseline survey in Astronomy, where the status of astronomy education amongst school students and teachers is being analysed.` The OAE Center India team helped with the National Science Day activities and organised the public outreach and education session of the Astronomical Society of India held in IISC Bengaluru. The latter was helpful in bringing together people from different parts of the country working on education and outreach, sharing their experiences and collaborating with each other. The activities of the centre were also publicised during the plenary ASI session to reach professional astronomers. Seminars 06.02.2024 Siddartha Gupta on Nonthermal Particles in Collisionless Shocks: Investigating Injection and Acceleration Mechanisms throughKineticPlasmaSimulations. 08.02.2024 Suman Bala on Gamma-Say Bursts (GSBs) as electromagnetic (EM) counterparts of Gravitational Wave (GW) sourceswithFermi GBM. 20.02.2024 Sayan Saha on Novel Bayesian Inferences from the Cosmic Microwave Background. 22.02.2024 Satadru Bag on Harnessing the Unresolved Lenses: Detecting Strong Lenses and Measuring Time-Delays from UnresolvedLightCurves. 28.03.2024 Swagat Mishra on Towards the origin of matter in the universe: Inflation fragmentation, Oscillon formation and decay. 21.03.2024 Atreyee Sinha on Developmentof theCTAScienceTools, andsome interestingresultswithH.E.S.S. 19.03.2024 Chandreyee Maitra on Exploring the hot and energetic universe: from ultra-luminous X-ray pulsars to nuclear burningwhitedwarfs. 05.03.2024 RajeshMondal on The21-cmcosmology. 12.03.2024 Saikruba Krishnan on Multi-wavelength study of an X-ray flaring event and a variable soft X-ray excess in Seyfert galaxydetectedwitheROSITA. 16.01.2024 Swagat SauravMishra on Primordial blackholesandstochastic inflationbeyondslowroll:Noisematrixelements. 02.01.202 Sumanta Chakraborty on Theconundrumof tidal Lovenumber. 04.01.2024 Vinay Kashyap on 25YearsofSciencewithChandra. 09.01.2024 Aru Beri on Probing regions of strong gravity using fast-timing, multi-wavelength diagnostics and prospects withX-raypolarization. 25.01.2024 Dusmanta Patra on Spectral indexvariationacrossX-shapedradiogalaxies.