Victoria Member's IYA Project in France

by Jack Ruitenbeek, Victoria Centre

Although I officially live on Gabriola Island BC, and am a RASC life member, I spend 11 months a year in France, just outside of Geneva. I have hitched my observing wagon to the local astronomy club, called M51, here in France. Last year, our club obtained permission from the French IYA09 authorities to use their logo to do an on-line astronomy quiz. The original quiz was in French (based on a locally developed board game of the "Snakes and Ladders" type - called "Jonah and the Black Hole") which was then translated into English, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch. The quiz itself is maintained on a server at the Lyon Observatory in France. I provided most of the English translation to the quiz as part of my local volunteer effort, and for so doing, they also permitted me (in the translation credits) to list my affiliation as "RASC, Victoria Centre".

The quiz includes 50 multiple-choice questions and is geared to young and old alike. The site is now up and running in 5 of the 6 languages (excl. Spanish) and I invite you to try it, or make reference to it. I would be happy to write a more coherent short piece about it for your website or for an issue of Skynews. (The Spanish version is now being proofread so may be up and running by the time you read this.) The main site is test-astronomie.com.

That site shows the credits and by clicking anywhere in the big logo, you move to the entry site for the quiz (test-astronomie.com/accueil%20AMA09.html), where you choose your language (by clicking on a flag). And off you go...

We found it popular in classrooms while testing the site, and also a challenge in a few languages if you think you have one mastered. Of course this may also be of interest nationally because it is available in 6 different languages, but I do not know who I might contact at RASC. If you have any ideas or if there is a broader effort to have the Centres report nationally then this can potentially be part of that.

Wishing you all well, and clear skies. Contact me here.

Author: 
walter.macdonald2@gmail.com
Last modified: 
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - 12:15pm