Our outreach program is conducted in schools and colleges across the country to inspire students.
Cosmania is one of CAM-SUST's most exciting outreach programs conducted regularly at schools and colleges across Bangladesh. The name "Cosmania" means 'Powerful Symbolism'. And we use this program as a symbol of astronomy outreach events through Astro-Presentation, Q&A, Problem Solving, Art competition, Puzzle, Sudoku, VR App show, Paper Plane competition, and the most interesting Water Rocket exhibition with an explanation.
The philosophy behind Astro-Presentation is to introduce up to date astronomy concepts to school-college level students. Our focus will be on understandable astronomy topics for junior-level like Planets, Exoplanets, Solar system, Galaxy, astronomy observation technique, and a lot more interesting topics. Q&A is the extended part of this segment where students can ask their own questions or share their imaginative universe with us.
We hold Problem Solving sessions & Poster Presentations based on the presentation topics. We design this segment in such a way that students can interact with each other. Mainly in our education system, it is rare to see senior-junior interaction in the school-college level or we can say there is no merit exchange among senior-junior. So we set problems for this session where students will solve those problems in a group of three students from three different classes (mainly secondary and higher secondary). The problem will make them think as they have never done before. Then they present a poster explaining their solution to that problem. And obviously, we don't judge their answer, we judge their approach to a problem.
We arrange Art Competition, Puzzle or Sudoku Competition based on the students' age. And we show the Lunar VR app by Team Olik (Nasa Space App Challenge Global Winner 2018). Through the Lunar VR app we simulate the experience of walking on the 's surface. Also, we make students familiar with the landing site of Apollo 11. They can also experience the Solar Eclipse on the moon and see the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
To make science even more exciting, we arrange Paper Plane competitions among the students. Prior to the competition, we brief about basic principles of aerodynamics like how a plane glides and demonstrate how to make a paper plane. After that, students make their own and compete with that. So far, our longest recorded glide is 78.4 feet.
This is the most fun and engaging part of Cosmania. We have a couple of Water Rockets made with water bottles, paper and duck tape. We also made water rocket launchers with our own design. We use these for water rocket shows. Before that, we describe how a real rocket launches to the sky. Then we set everything up, and the students count down from 5 to 1. When it reaches zero, we pull the string and the rocket launches and with that students cheering is phenomenal.
Hey! Are you interested in having us at your schools or colleges? If so, help us get in touch with your class teacher or school authorities. Once connected, we'll take it from there! We would love to bring this Cosmania experience to your institution. We hope to see you soon!