scholarly journals Teaching and Popularizing Astronomy and Space Sciences at the Observatory of the City of Bochum

1990 ◽  
Vol 105 ◽  
pp. 350-351
Author(s):  
J.V. Feitzinger ◽  
M. Hünerbein ◽  
R. Kordecki ◽  
U. Lemmer ◽  
G. Monstadt ◽  
...  

The tasks and aims of the Bochum Observatory are popularization of astronomy and space sciences, and adult education. In general, as a cultural center for natural sciences we must translate scientific nomenclature into the language of the nonspecialist. Astronomy is ideal for presenting the basic facts of scientific methodology and reasoning to the publicA planetarium is the most versatile instrument for teaching basic astronomy and space sciences to the general public as well as to school groups. We take great care to avoid a lecture-like style in the programs. Audience surveys have shown that most visitors don’t want to get the feeling of being educated as in school. Nevertheless, we first have to motivate before we can educate. Instead, most visitors want merely to enjoy astronomy in the pleasant atmosphere of the dome. Consequently, our public planetarium shows contain elements of entertainment. We use many special effects, panoramas, and all-sky projections for a most precise simulation of astronomical phenomena. The audience should get the thrilling impression of witnessing things from close up. For example, they all become passengers on an imaginary spacecraft visiting the rugged terrain of Valles Marineris on Mars, the swirling clouds in Jupiter’s atmosphere, or even the vicinity of a whirlpool-like accretion disc around a supermassive black hole in the core of an active galaxy. We use the potential of the planetarium as an “illusion factory” to increase the visitors’ positive attitude towards astronomy and space travel. Special music, sound, and noise effects add to the impression.

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4 (52)) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwaseun Ayodele Olowoporoku

Peoples’ opinion has been an adjudged tool for proffering solution to various urban problems. By this, information is sourced to guide policy-makers and other environmentally concerned stakeholders in taking enlightened decisions about the future of cities. This study therefore examined urban legibility across different residential zones of Ibadan metropolis with a view to providing information that could enhance the livability of the city and others with similar background. A total of 327 residents were selected for the survey using systematic sampling technique. The study revealed that the most predominant urban legibility elements used in navigation in the core and transition zones were areas names while availability of nearby churches was the prominent urban legibility elements in giving/receiving directions in the suburban.             The study revealed that variation existed in the importance residents attached to the various urban legibility elements as well as the effectiveness of these elements across the various residential areas of the metropolis. Furthermore, the study established that locating places in Ibadan in terms of describing and taking description is a challenging task. It recommended that the government should work out modalities to locate all urban legibility elements, enlighten the public on the need to incorporate these elements in order to improve street coordinate system in the study area and also develop and implement existing development plan with the integration of urban legibility elements.


2021 ◽  
pp. 47-82
Author(s):  
Dolly Kikon ◽  
Duncan McDuie-Ra

This chapter unravels the core tensions at the heart of Dimapur’s urban politics, the growth of a migrant city in a tribal territory. Beginning with the public lynching of rape accused Syed Farid Khan, we analyse the centrality of the incident to Dimapur’s demographic anxieties. Dimapur is a space settled from multiple directions by different communities (tribal and non-tribal) that engage in a variety of tactics turning settlements into neighbourhoods. We focus on place-making in Dimapur to explore the ways in which different communities from within and outside Nagaland create a sense of belonging in patches of the city, arguing that the tensions between migrant city and tribal territory produce and reflect a spatial order particular to Dimapur. This order appears cosmopolitan, though as the lynching showed, it can also be extremely fragile.


Spatium ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biljana Arandjelovic

Berlin Mitte is one of the most interesting parts of the city, located in the core of Berlin where every corner and stone can tell a story. Mitte, the cultural center of Berlin is also known as the political and economic hub of Berlin. This paper explores the urban and historical image of two important parts of Berlin Mitte district: Alexanderplatz and Friedrichsta?e. Friedrichstra?e, as the main shopping and business street in this area, was planned with great attention by Prussian authorities, while the area around Alexanderplatz grew up randomly and its streets did not follow any special urban patterns. All potential international investors wanted to come to Friedrichstra?e after the fall of the Wall, while Alexanderplatz was not so attractive to them. Many famous architects took part in numerous competitions regarding urban planning reconstructions of the famous Alex throughout the 20th century. These two areas of the Mitte district, Alexanderplatz and Friedrichsta?e, are very important for contemporary Berlin and both areas have different problems.


Author(s):  
Luciana Dadico

In this article, I discuss the genesis of psychotechnics in Brazil, from 1920 to 1950, starting from narratives about the history of psychology and analyzing, in a comparative way, three psychotechnics courses held in the city of São Paulo. Although these courses respond to local projects aimed at industry and education, our analysis reveals that they also express the materialization of a global project, built on statistical tools, standardized equipment and international circulation of texts and intellectuals. Measuring human activities was in the core of the public recognition of Psychology as a field of knowledge. The critical review of this history is important in order to understand how Psychology took part in building our current way of life. Moreover, understanding this movement within the field can help psychologists today in their work to reduce suffering, but also to change this rationalized state of things, responsible for the suffering production. Such changes imply refusing consolidated models for thinking and research in Psychology, in favor of more interdisciplinary and critical approaches.


1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-203
Author(s):  
Robert Chatham

The Court of Appeals of New York held, in Council of the City of New York u. Giuliani, slip op. 02634, 1999 WL 179257 (N.Y. Mar. 30, 1999), that New York City may not privatize a public city hospital without state statutory authorization. The court found invalid a sublease of a municipal hospital operated by a public benefit corporation to a private, for-profit entity. The court reasoned that the controlling statute prescribed the operation of a municipal hospital as a government function that must be fulfilled by the public benefit corporation as long as it exists, and nothing short of legislative action could put an end to the corporation's existence.In 1969, the New York State legislature enacted the Health and Hospitals Corporation Act (HHCA), establishing the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) as an attempt to improve the New York City public health system. Thirty years later, on a renewed perception that the public health system was once again lacking, the city administration approved a sublease of Coney Island Hospital from HHC to PHS New York, Inc. (PHS), a private, for-profit entity.


Author(s):  
Azhari Amri

Film Unyil puppet comes not just part of the entertainment world that can be enjoyed by people from the side of the story, music, and dialogue. However, there is more value in it which is a manifestation of the creator that can be absorbed into the charge for the benefit of educating the children of Indonesia to the public at large. The Unyil puppet created by the father of Drs. Suyadi is one of the works that are now widely known by the whole people of Indonesia. The process of creating a puppet Unyil done with simple materials and formation of character especially adapted to the realities of the existing rural region. Through this process, this research leads to the design process is fundamentally educational puppet inspired by the creation of Si Unyil puppet. The difference is the inspiring character created in this study is on the characters that exist in urban life, especially the city of Jakarta. Thus the results of this study are the pattern of how to shape the design of products through the creation of the puppet with the approach of urban culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (March 2018) ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A Okanlawon ◽  
O.O Odunjo ◽  
S.A Olaniyan

This study examined Residents’ evaluation of turning transport infrastructure (road) to spaces for holding social ceremonies in the indigenous residential zone of Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. Upon stratifying the city into the three identifiable zones, the core, otherwise known as the indigenous residential zone was isolated for study. Of the twenty (20) political wards in the two local government areas of the town, fifteen (15) wards that were located in the indigenous zone constituted the study area. Respondents were selected along one out of every three (33.3%) of the Trunk — C (local) roads being the one mostly used for the purpose in the study area. The respondents were the residents, commercial motorists, commercial motorcyclists, and celebrants. Six hundred and forty-two (642) copies of questionnaire were administered and harvested on the spot. The Mean Analysis generated from the respondents’ rating of twelve perceived hazards listed in the questionnaire were then used to determine respondents’ most highly rated perceived consequences of the practice. These were noisy environment, Blockage of drainage by waste, and Endangering the life of the sick on the way to hospital; the most highly rated reasons why the practice came into being; and level of acceptability of the practice which was found to be very unacceptable in the study area. Policy makers should therefore focus their attention on strict enforcement of the law prohibiting the practice in order to ensure more cordial relationship among the citizenry, seeing citizens’ unacceptability of the practice in the study area.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayda Alrige ◽  
Hind Bitar Bitar ◽  
Maram Meccawi ◽  
Balakrishnan Mullachery

BACKGROUND Designing a health promotion campaign is never an easy task, especially during a pandemic of a highly infectious disease, such as Covid-19. In Saudi Arabia, many attempts have been made toward raising the public awareness about Covid-19 infection-level and its precautionary health measures that have to be taken. Although this is useful, most of the health information delivered through the national dashboard and the awareness campaign are very generic and not necessarily make the impact we like to see on individuals’ behavior. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to build and validate a customized awareness campaign to promote precautionary health behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The customization is realized by utilizing a geospatial artificial intelligence technique called Space-Time Cube (STC) technique. METHODS This research has been conducted in two sequential phases. In the first phase, an initial library of thirty-two messages was developed and validated to promote precautionary messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. This phase was guided by the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM) for behavior change. In phase 2, we applied STC as a Geospatial Artificial Intelligence technique to create a local map for one city representing three different profiles for the city districts. The model was built using COVID-19 clinical data. RESULTS Thirty-two messages were developed based on resources from the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia. The enumerated content validity of the messages was established through the utilization of Content Validity Index (CVI). Thirty-two messages were found to have acceptable content validity (I-CVI=.87). The geospatial intelligence technique that we used showed three profiles for the districts of Jeddah city: one for high infection, another for moderate infection, and the third for low infection. Combining the results from the first and second phases, a customized awareness campaign was created. This awareness campaign would be used to educate the public regarding the precautionary health behaviors that should be taken, and hence help in reducing the number of positive cases in the city of Jeddah. CONCLUSIONS This research delineates the two main phases to developing a health awareness messaging campaign. The messaging campaign, grounded in FBM, was customized by utilizing Geospatial Artificial Intelligence to create a local map with three district profiles: high-infection, moderate-infection, and low-infection. Locals of each district will be targeted by the campaign based on the level of infection in their district as well as other shared characteristics. Customizing health messages is very prominent in health communication research. This research provides a legitimate approach to customize health messages during the pandemic of COVID-19.


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