The long-range plan for Canadian astronomy, and its Mid-Term Review (see www.casca.ca) both strongly recommended that the Canadian astronomy community develop a major public outreach program, aimed at media and the public, as well as at educators and students. CASCA's education website www.cascaeducation.ca was an important first step. At the 2005 CASCA annual meeting, the Education and Outreach Committee, and the Board, discussed a proposal for an expanded outreach program, and approved a plan to begin fundraising for this initiative. As envisioned in the LRP, this would be a partnership between CASCA, NRC/HIA and the facilities which they support, the Canadian Space Agency, the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), our corporate partners, the planetariums and science centres, and the many professional and amateur astronomers (including the RASC) who give presentations to the public. As a first step in fundraising, we are submitting an application to NSERC PromoScience for partial support. This is a very complicated application, and I am grateful to Jayanne English, who did much of the conceptualizing, to the Education and Outreach Committee, and to several other people -- notably Dennis Crabtree, Jim Hesser and Michael Jolliffe -- who provided essential advice.
For want of a better name, we have called the project "VOCA" -- Virtual Outreach for Canadian Astronomy. It will reach across the country, carried by electronic, print, and real human media. Here's the summary:
"Images are central to astronomy
education, outreach, and communication. VOCA will provide (i) informative,
inspiring,
astronomical images, graphics, and supporting information, highlighting
Canada's leading role in astronomical research and discovery, and (ii)
an efficient, effective, high-impact process for bringing these to all
Canadians, including pro-active dissemination of this material to mass
media, to planetariums and science centres, and to the thousands of
professional and amateur astronomers who voluntarily give face-to-face
presentations to the public. VOCA will also make the material freely
available through a well-designed, existing website. VOCA is a
partnership project which is a key part of a comprehensive long-term
plan for Canadian astronomical research, education, and outreach".
Stay tuned for more information about this initiative.
John R. Percy (University of Toronto)