Month: February 2020

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Viewing the Moon for the very first time

MMAO - observing session Astronomy Ambassador Zacharia Mujungu, instructor at Ailanga writes, “This past Saturday we enjoyed the first clear sky after an unusually long, long period of rainfall. I and Pendaeli hosted Form One students at the MMAO observatory. They were so excited to observe the Moon and Venus through the telescope for first time in their life. This big smiling faces is the indicator that this telescope is the cornerstone for science revolution in Tanzania. We feel indebted to do more and go extra miles to make it available to all students in the country, [working to] change the classroom learning environment by encouraging hands on activities (DIY), not just test scores.

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Physics educator Dan Heim attends MMAO Ambassadors call

For more than 30 years retired high school physics instructor, amateur astronomer, and professional writer Dan Heim provided students with the joy of learning the fundamentals of physics, both here on Earth applied to the skies above.

In the fall of 2018 Dan was instrumental in rebuilding and upgrading the 12″ Cave-Cassegrain telescope now in use at the Mt. Meru Astronomical Observatory, Tanzania. He has since remained engaged with MMAO, working to guide applied science instruction at the observatory and in the classroom.

Dan guided MMAO to the freely available Harvard Project Physics text books (https://archive.org/details/projectphysicscollection), the same used in his own classrooms. Having read Unit 1 of the Physics Handbook, the MMAO Ambassadors invited Dan to join in a live SKype session, to answer questions invoked by what they had read.

Thank you Dan!