The waltz of the origin of the Universe
25 April 2000
An extraordinary opening for the 44th National Congress of the Italian Astronomical Society (SAIt) in Monte Porzio, Italy this week - pupils of an elementary school Giosue Carducci (Monte Porzio) danced the Origin of the Universe set to the music of Strauss. This original event was part of the opening session of the Congress, co-sponsored by ESA, entitled: Astronomy in town, on Sunday 9 April 2000.Thanks to a series of educational initiatives by the Astronomical Observatory of Monte Porzio, roman schools are becoming familiar with space science and astronomy. Dr Roberto Buonanno, Director of the Observatory, has for many years been promoting lectures addressed to schools, in order to complement the science curriculum and to make astronomy accessible to students of all ages.As a result of this outreach effort - under the supervision of the Observatory's staff - the students presented their synthesis of the History of the Universe, the History of Human Flights into Space, built scale models of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giotto and Galileo probes and the Space Shuttle and represented the Big Bang in a dance set to the music of Strauss.
"Having seen such an enthusiastic response by these kids makes me no longer worried about a possible lack of future space scientists" says Dr Buonanno. "The view of the Universe being born as such as an harmonic dance gave me a completely new vision of the Big Bang: I have to thank the kids and their creativity for this".
Any observer would be able to see from this the tremendous potential of young people to understand and respond to even the most complex messages when conveyed in a simple language. Something to think seriously about
For information on outreach and educational activities please contact: Dr. Giuseppe Bono: bono
coma.mporzio.astro.it
Tel: +39 06 942 86 479
Last Update: 1 September 2019
