There are several entities, individuals and organizations creating new resources in astronomy education. But these are scattered and and not created for a global audience. Also, when creating resources, educators tend to develop from scratch for many reasons: ownership, quality expectations, cultural adaptation, and I-know-best syndrome. In this talk, we present and discuss the creation of a “Cooperative” as a model for the co-development, production, and distribution of astronomy educational resources. We use the Universe in a Box project as a case study.
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Universe in a Box: Co-operative Model
1. A Collaborative Model for Astronomy
Educational Resources for Global Outreach
Case Study in Progress – Universe in a Box
Jaya Ramchandani, Pedro Russo, Cecilia Scorza, Natalie Fischer, Erik Arends
and Charlotte Provot on behalf of EU-UNAWE’s Universe in a Box team
2. The Situation
Many good resources out there
Hard to find
Not created for a global audience
Language restriction
Not documented enough to be shared
Not in “reproducible” formats
Require quality tweeks
Educators tend to develop from scratch
4. Universe in a Box is an educational kit to assist teachers and
educators in bringing astronomy and space sciences to 4-10 year old
children around the world.
7. 2011
Identified
A global product is one
that is standardized to
an extent to gain
economies of scale and
scope but localized to
meet local
requirements.
8. 2012
“Glocalization”
Establishing need/demand by
determining if the educational content
matches with curricula in most countries
Redefining activity book and materials in
a format that is easy to localise and
reproduce
Developing a production and
distribution model to reach Universe in
a Box to UNAWE’s network of 56
countries.
9. 2013
Q1-Q3: Prototyping
50 prototypes distributed in March 2013 to 31 Countries
from UNAWE Network
Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Egypt,
Germany, Ghana, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Mozambique,
Northern Ireland, Philippines, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi
Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, The Netherlands, UK, USA
Positive first impressions
Feedback and changes
Improvement to educational models
Improvements to production quality
Improvements to packaging
14. 2013
Q4: First Large Scale Production
1000 boxes commissioned (Curion Education Pvt. Ltd.,
India) – English version
Two-pronged distribution model: Free Distribution
(60%) + Sale (40% for sustainability)
Sale price only includes production and shipping costs
of the box
Buy one, Donate one: €128 (two boxes + shipping)
Buy more than five: €75 (one box + shipping)
17. The Big Picture
e.g., India Partner
Creates
resource
Uses locally
Identifies resource
Localisation
“Glocal-ready”
Production
Prototyping
Distribution
Ensure quality
Free distribution
Identify project
partners
For sale
Version 2.0
Advice on funding
18. Manifesto
We are uncovering new ways of developing and
distributing educational resources for global outreach.
Through this work we have come to value:
Co-development (multiple partners) over single organization
Co-production and distribution (with local partners ) over
top-down
Co-funding (with smaller amounts) over large capital
requirement
Co-branding (multiple logos) over one large brand
Co-profiting (each partner benefits)
Co-ownership (everyone is responsible) over licensing /
franchising
Adapted from: Manifesto for Agile Software Development
19. Benefits
Sharing of good resources
Quality through review network for educational +
scientific input
Acknowledgement of your work towards the common
goal
Compensation for your time and energy
Large reach in a short(er) amount of time
Meeting a common goal
20. What’s Next: Discussion
International Coordination Office: Set up as a
cooperative (for sustainability) with stakeholders
with the same goal
Cooperative members “buy in” and fund / offer
expertise and time to projects
Project-based approach for resource development
Multiple partners for projects (for development,
localisation, production, distribution)
23. Regional Versions
www.unawe.org/universebox
We are looking for Universe in a Box partners
• Demand forecasting for country / region
• Promotion and fundraising
• Localisation (language, hemisphere, culture,
context)
• Vendor management (production, distribution,
sales)
• Coordination with UNAWE IO
We are also looking for funds for the coordination
activities for the regional versions and possible
seed funding for prototypes in other countries
24. Contact
Jaya Ramchandani
Project Manager, Universe in a Box
jayar@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Pedro Russo
International Project Manager, EU-UNAWE
russo@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Design Credit
Charlotte Provot
provot@strw.leudenuniv.nl
Notas del editor
Jaya RamchandaniProject Manager of Universe in a Box ProjectHere to talk about why a collaborative model is a good idea for educational resources in astronomy for global outreach
What is the problem we are trying to solve?Many good resources out there around the world with educational goals common to other curriculaNo way to find them – not online, (if online) not search-engine friendly, restricted to small networksSimply not created with a global audience in mind as they were created to solve a local problemLanguage barrier Not documented enough to be sharedNot in “reproducible” formatsRequire quality tweeks (educational aspects, scientific aspects)Educators tend to develop from scratch: ownership, quality expectations, cultural adaptation, I-know-best syndrome
Universe in a Box is a good case study
2009: House of Astronomy created “MINT Box: An astronomy adventure for elementary school students”In German, used in about 20 schools in Germany(169 Euro for materials and assembly)
2011: EU-UNAWE identified it as great “global” resourceWhat are the characteristics of a global product?
March 2013: 50 prototypes made by Curion Education (India) and sent to 31 countries. Feedback sought. Changes madeFor example, the planets were to scale, but not the sun. So we added a 1000-cm inflatable ball.
As you can imagine shipping a 6 kg box around can be quite expensive.So the idea is to go for a regional model both for localization and more reasonable production costs.
Example of Edward Gomez receiving a 90,000 EURO grant from the municipality of Wales to distribute 100 Universe in a Box kits to schools in Wales, along with teacher training on how to use the boxes.
Future: National / Regional versions: Localization, Production, Distribution. Local funding for each part of the process.Licence sought for commercial attribution as this is a creative commons non-commercial product.
Coming together of an open-innovation modelRole of EU UNAWEIdentifies resource to suit global need Fund the prototyping to make it “glocal-ready”Ensure quality of Educational and Scientific goalsIdentify the right project partners Version 2.0Advice / assistance on funding, and production and distribution
Industry has many open source and collaborative models to learn from:Software Industry: Agile Software Development Space Industry: ESA’s Concurrent Design What would have happened if EU-UNAWE did not adopt this approach:Co-develop: It would be limited to German-speaking regions. Different form of handbook. Improvements not made/Co-produce and distribute: It would be limited to the international office raising funds for distributing. Local versions would not be possible: India, Colombia, Brazil, Philippines, Indonesia Co-funding: MINT Box grant, EU-UNAWE grant, local production fundraising.Would require large amounts of money for one entity to do the whole process. If the entity is a non-profit, even more difficult by guidelines to sustain.Co-brand: Partners may feel unacknowledged
Maybe a new type of organization or a model for current organizations?With this I end this presentation and the next few slides contain practical information.
Many of you here already have established networks.And different partners are suitable for different issues, but if could spread the word, it would be great.