Speakers
Description
In the vision to increase the number of African astronomers, physicists, and related STEM professionals, strengthening undergraduate astronomy and physics education is a crucial (and often overlooked) piece. BLUEshift Africa is a project designed to address this need. BLUEshift is made possible by a Venture Grant from the American Institute of Physics, through the American Astronomical Society, and in partnership with the African Astronomical Society (AfAS). The project to date has focused on astronomy. BLUEshift’s cornerstone is two-day workshops on undergraduate astronomy teaching for early-career astronomers, held at AfAS conferences in March 2025 and 2026. The main workshop goals are to help participants learn to teach astronomy in more interactive and inclusive ways and to build community around university-level astronomy teaching in Africa. Workshop topics include research-based principles of teaching and learning, teaching to promote equity and inclusion, and active learning techniques such as Think-Pair-Share. We will share results from our two years of successful workshops. We will also share results from our online “Communities of Teaching” sessions with workshop alumni, and from our pilot study of undergraduate astronomy teaching around the continent. From this foundation in astronomy, we are now looking to expand BLUEshift Africa to support undergraduate physics teaching for early-career physicists around the continent, and welcome partnerships and collaboration.
| Apply for student award at which level: | PhD |
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| Consent on use of personal information: Abstract Submission | Yes, I ACCEPT |