GalileoMobile went to Colombia! Only a month after completing BraBo, an expedition that reached thousands of people across Brazil and Bolivia, we completed another adventure, GalileoMobile: between the stars and Bacatá. The name Bacatá of contemporary Bogotá comes from the Chibcha language of the Musica, an indigenous civilization of Colombia's Eastern Range highlands.

 

GalileoMobile's first visit to Colombia took place between October 13th to 31st 2014. During three weeks we visited five schools in the area of Bogotá, reaching a total of 500 students, 15 teachers, and about 300 local people. As previously, we observed the sky and performed science experiments with young people and their teachers, focusing on exchanging ideas and views about the sky. You can read all about it in our report and listen to our podcasts.

 

We visited each school twice: once in the first week and once again in the third week.  In our first visit we introduced the project and explored some basic astronomical concepts.  The pupils then had one week before our second visit to observe the sky and continue the experiments with their teachers. This helped them internalize concepts, reflect on what we talked about and prepare plenty of questions for our second visit!

 

In the intervening week, we participated in a large outreach event organized by the Bogotá Planetarium, in which GalileoMobile members gave science talks for the public on the subject of life in the Universe, as well. As part of the same event, we organized teacher training workshops with over 100 participants.

 

“And behold, a star that shines for prisoners

lo, a star leads me

from a hilltop called Bogota

the city adorned by clouds...”

(Philippe Soupault, Ode to Bogotá)