| A brief historical motivation
Scientific education has received growing attention in the last decades, a fact even more apparent in the last years. This is a consequence of two simultaneous features. On the one hand, the complex network of vital elements involving our lives is totally rooted on scientific and technical principles. On the other hand, people have in general very floppy skills on that subjects, certainly less than necessary for a proper exercise of citizenship.
This situation has caused a lot of concern among educators and scientific researchers, and triggered several initiatives intended to reverse it by creating opportunities to favor a better background of skills in science and technology. These attempts have tried to avoid mistakes committed in the former decades, like atomizing and isolating the various scientific domains and separating human domains from those of exact and natural sciences.
Today’s challenge is to begin to revert this worrying situation of scientific illiteracy, albeit without ignoring the need of also a strong basic background in social sciences and humanities, in order to favor a reintegration between the humanistic and the scientific cultures. It is hoped thus to guarantee that some very fundamental features concerning the relationship between humans and between them and the environment, like ethics and solidarity, can guide the central issues of any educational initiative, even more urgently and affirmatively for scientific education.
Inspired by these facts and based on their own experiences of several years devoted to the teaching and popularization of astronomy in various levels, and also attending public visitations of people with several different profiles, in diverse contexts of formal and informal teaching, a group of professional astronomers has decided to create the Latin-American Journal of Astronomy Education (RELEA).
Because of operational and budgetary considerations, and with the aim of granting the widest access to the Journal, we have chosen for it the on-line electronic format. The RELEA will be produced by the team of the Instituto Superior de Ciencias Aplicadas (ISCA) located in the city of Limeira (São Paulo, Brazil).
Other factors that have contributed to launch this new Journal include the existence of an international effort dating from several years ago, which operates to enhance the debate and seeks for progress in Astronomy Education. Within this framework, there exist in several continents associations and related publications specifically dealing with Astronomy Education. Some examples are the european "Association for Astronomy Education", which publishes the journal "Gnomon"; the "Astronomical Society of the Pacific" (ASP), responsible for the journal "Universe in the Classroom", and "Teaching Astronomy in Asian Pacific Region" in Asia. More recently the electronic journal "Astronomy Education Review", published by the "US National Optical Astronomy Observatories" y la ASP has been launched. Globally the Commission 46 of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) (formerly called "Teaching of Astronomy" and presently "Astronomy Education and Development"), publishes the "IAU Commission 46 Newsletter", also in the on-line electronic format.
A conclusion that emerges from this brief listing is that there are no institutions or specific publications in Astronomy Education which congregate experiences and proposals from Latin-American countries.
We shall mention also that some years ago Paulo S. Bretones, while acting as the Coordinator of the Teaching and Public Outreach Section of the Ibero-American Astronomy League (LIADA), received from Dr. John Percy, then acting as president of the Commission 46 of the IAU, the following suggestion (on 06/10/97): “… about the LIADA, someone recently asked me whether there is some coordinated group dealing with the teaching of astronomy in Latin-America, somewhat analogous to the group “Teaching of Astronomy in the Asian-Pacific Region”. Maybe your group can play that role.” Since that we had begun to join efforts to publish a Journal with the referred scope and profile.
Thus, the Journal will be a forum for the publication of papers in astronomy education, and will serve to show the latin-american countries work in this area. The Journal is targeted to a readership of educators and researchers interested in astronomy education, teachers of all levels and interested people in general.
The launching and initial steps were taken at the XVIII Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Astronomical Society (SAB) held in Florianópolis (Santa Catarina, Brazil) on August, 2002. However, it is important to remark that the Journal has no links with the SAB. The latter has been very receptive to this initiative headed by some of its associate members, allowing the diffusion of the launching because of the opinion that such a Journal may be interesting for the whole astronomical community and may bring a positive contribution to the astronomy education in general. However, and in spite of this attitude and the fact that most brazilian members of the Editorial Board are also members of the SAB, the new Journal does not represent the Brazilian Astronomical Society in any circumstance, it is not sponsored by the latter, and does not hold any relationship (formal or otherwise) with the aforementioned entity. The contents and managing of the RELEA are an exclusive responsibility of the Editors and Editorial Board, bearing no involvement with the
SAB.
Aims and Scope
The main objectives of the RELEA are:
· To fulfill the absence of a specific publication of Astronomy Education in Latin-America;
· To be a forum to show the latin-american activity in this area;
· To serve educators, researchers and astronomy students, in all levels of education and to provide them methodological and content tools; and
· To promote the development of research in Astronomy Education in Latin-American
countries.
Editors and Editorial Board
The managing of the manuscripts will be done in Brazil by the three
Editors:
Paulo Sérgio
Bretones (Inst. Sup. de Ciênc. Aplic.)
Luiz Carlos Jafelice (Depto. Fís./Univ. Fed. Rio Grande
do Norte)
Jorge Horvath (Inst. Astr., Geof. e Ciênc. Atm./Univ. São
Paulo)
The Editorial Board is composed of:
Brazil:
Roberto Boczko (Inst. Astr., Geof. e Ciênc. Atm./Univ. São
Paulo)
Amâncio Friaça (Inst. Astr., Geof. e Ciênc.
Atm./Univ. São Paulo)
Fernando Antonio Pires Vieira (Fundação Planetário/Rio
de Janeiro)
Jorge Megid Neto (Fac. Educ./Univ. Estad. Campinas)
Sérgio Mascarello Bisch (Depto. Fïs./Univ. Fed. Espírito
Santo)
Argentina:
Horacio Tignanelli (Fac. Cienc. Astron. y Geof./Univ. Nac. La
Plata y Min. Educ., Cienc. y Tecn. de la Nación)
Chile:
Maria Isabel Ormeño Aguirre (Dep. de Fisica/Univ. de Santiago
de Chile)
Uruguay:
Gabriel Otero Gaynicotch (Asoc. Profes. Astron. del Uruguay)
Mexico:
Julieta Fierro (Inst. Astron./Univ. Aut. Mexico)
Published
Numbers
n.1,
2004
n.2, 2005
n.3, 2006
n.4, 2007
Call for papers
The RELEA is composed of the following Sections:
· Culture, History and Society
· Teacher Formation
· Teaching and Learning
· Didactic Resources
· Educational Policies
· News
· Reviews
· Events
The submitted manuscripts will be sent to two competent referees, one of which may be a member of the Editorial Board. Works receiving positive recommendations from both referees will be accepted immediately. In cases of doubt, a third referee will be consulted, and from his/her opinion a final decision about the acceptance will be made by the Editors. In all cases, the identities of the authors and the referees will be withheld, following the procedure known as “double-blind peer review”.
The manuscripts may be written in Portuguese, Spanish or English. In all cases, an abstract written in English must be included.
The manuscripts must follow these general rules:
· either .doc, .rtf or .pdf formats are acceptable;
· must contain, at the beginning of the article, a title and the name(s) of the author(s) and their home institution(s); the complete address of each author,
contact telephone and FAX numbers, and electronic address;
· must contain from three to six keywords;
· must indicate to what Section the article is been submitted to;
· must contain an abstract with up to 200 words, and a body text without limits a priori;
· figures, diagrams, photographs and related material should be sent in .jpg or .ps formats;
· the recommended notation for equations and other mathematical symbols is the one found in the RevTex package of the AIP;
· the references must be listed at the end of the text by alphabetical order following the first author family name (and reverse chronological order in the
case of several works by the same first author), according to the following conventions.
For one, two, three or more than three authors:
One author: FULANO, Carlos
Two or three authors: FULANO, Carlos; MENGANO, Marcela T. ; ZUTANO, Juan M.
More than three authors: FULANO, Carlos et al.
Books:
FULANO, Carlos. El Estudiante de Astronomía. City: Publisher, 1990. 194pp.
Book chapters:
If the author of the chapter is the same as the book:
FULANO, Carlos. Estudiando Astronomía. In: El Aprendizaje de la Astronomía. City: Publisher, 1998. Chapt. 2, pp. 13-36.
Chapter in a book:
FULANO, Carlos. Teaching Astronomical Concepts. In: MENGANO, Marcela T. (Ed.)
Astronomy Education. City: Publisher, 1990. Chapt. 5, pp. 234-258.
Articles in Journals:
FULANO, Carlos; ZUTANO, Juan M. - Enseñando Astronomía - Revista de Enseñanza de la Astronomía, City, vol. 23, n. 2, p. 17-25, 2001.
Articles in electronic Journals:
ZUTANO, Juan M.; MENGANO, Marcela T. Cambios Conceptuales en Astronomía en Niños entre 10 y 12 Años de Edad. Educación & Ciencia, City, vol.14, n.43, 2002. Available
from: <http://www.scielo.ar/edu_art&pid=S02-5453020010100008&lng=iss> Accessed on Feb. 15, 2003.
Works in Proceedings, etc.:
MENGANO, Marcela T. et al. Investigación en Enseñanza de Astronomia en Latinoamérica. In: ZUTANO, Juan M. et al. (Eds). ENCUENTRO LATINOAMERICANO DE EDUCACIÓN EN ASTRONOMÍA, I, Rio de Janeiro, 2005. Annals... San Pablo: Instituto Nacional, 2005. (CD-ROM, archivo: p097-125.pdf) (poster; resumen 2p)
The articles must be submitted to the Editors exclusively to the following electronic
address:
observatorio@iscafaculdades.com.br with a copy to:
bretones@mpc.com.br
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