Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) 2016

A two days GTTP workshop was organized by Pokhara Astronomical Society (PAS) at Gyanodaya Boarding School, Rangkhola, Syangja on 19^th and 20^th February 2016. The program was conducted in association with Global Hands on Universe (GHoU) and National Academy of Geo and Space science (NAGGS). PABSON Syangja assisted as a local organizer of the event. Altogether twenty secondary level science teachers from different schools of Syangja actively participated in this workshop.

Mr. Narayan Acharya, Secretary of PABSON Syangja, had conducted the formal program before starting the workshop by lighting the candle. Mr. Mukta Rana, principal of Gyanodaya Boarding school, welcomed the all participates. He appreciated this type of workshop to make teacher as well as student more creative and practicable.

First day workshop of the event was on ‘Stellarium’ by Mr. Ashish Sharma and Mr. Sushil Bhattarai. The main objective of this workshop was to train teachers to use night sky observation techniques and make familiar with the Stellarium, astronomical software. Teachers were assigned to simulate the sky with Planets‚ Pleiades‚ Orion Nebula‚ Andromeda Galaxy, solar eclipse, lunar eclipse inside the classroom. They talked about Sky Maps which can be install on smart phones and show to their student inside the classroom. They trained teachers to find out the position of sun hour by hour and to make graph of position of Sun with the help of Stellarium.

Next day workshop of the event was on "Salsa J'' which was conducted by Mr. Niraj Raj Karna, president of NAGGS. The main objective of this program was to give an idea to measure the diameter of moon, crater etc. This was the advance astronomical software which fascinated   the teacher most.  At a mean time, Mr. Sabin Gautam conducted outdoor program with Star Wheel. This helps them to find and locate the stars with respect to time and also to identify the shape of constellation. Mr. Jeevan Lamsal, Secretary of PAS, gave a talk on Black Hole. Teachers got concept to make hand make telescope. Night sky observation through telescope was organized for teacher and students.

At last session of program Mr. Buddhi Sagar Tripathi, Chairman of PABSON Syangja gave his speech on the importance of such workshop and thanked to all trainers and speakers. Dr. Bonnie Thurber, GHoU, handed over Galileo t-shirt to the principal of the school. She facilitated the workshop on Salsa J and guided the trainer in their talks and workshop.