The announcement of the results of our Drawing Competition for Kids CAMEROON
The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach Cameroon and Sterren Schitteren Voor Iedereen (SSVI, Belgium) have announced an Astronomy themed drawing competition for kids. We wanted to share our sincere thanks to the artist “Marian Pontier” from Public Observatory Volkssterrenwacht Orion Steekbos (Netherlands) for the design of our drawings. (Text below form Mbonteh Roland Ndunge, NOC of Cameroon)
''CAMEROON ASTRO ART CONTEST (NOV. 2020 - JAN. 2021). Albert Einstein once said "The greatest scientists are artists as well!" Astronomy Club of Cameroon, Nkongsamba (ACC) in collaboration with Sterren Schitteren Voor Iedereen (SSVI), Euro Space Society, Public Observatory Orion Streekbos (Netherlands), IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) and Space for Art Foundation is set to awaken the creative aspects of Cameroonians left to die a natural death!
The purpose of science is to understand the world and create within the world. One cannot create without creativity. The word creativity in itself has the world ‘create’ which means the two processes are interconnected. The reason why art is necessary to science is because creativity involves imagination, and imagination is visualization. Things we are able to conceptualize, visualize or imagine in our mind are the things we can also create, if we have the tools to do so. Oftentimes, some of the greatest discoveries in science involved using some form of art. As one example, Charles Messier, a French astronomer from the 18th century, had a catalogue of about 110 drawings from his journals.
In his observation of the night sky in search of a wandering comet, Halley, he documented countless galaxies, clusters and nebulae. Another example, that is widely known to us all is Leonardo DaVinci, who often used art as a way to underpin his imagination and abstract thoughts to reality. It has been found that many of his drawings and scientific ideas have resulted in practical inventions. Yes, we have given our Cameroon students the opportunity to draw and color one or more of the following unique images and or create their own images.
We will send their drawings to Astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS). All participants will be issued certificates of participation. And also financial prizes, awards, ESA T-shirts, Space games, Astronomy Posters, etc will be given to the first 50 winners. SSVI donates 2 boardgames StarRun ( creator Orion Streekbos), 4 Solar System Scale Models (Rob Walrecht Productions) and several posters of moon and sun. (Planetarium Brussels). One of the boardgames is signed by Astronauts Dirk Frimout and Claude Nicollier ( Belgian and Swiss astronauts in space) plus Nobel Prize Winners Didier Queloz and Michel Mayor and a number of ESA T-shirts. Our great thanks too to L'astronomie l'Afrique for the shipping of the prices and the IAU OAD for their funds for national transportation, and we can go Visiting the schools and give a few financial gifts as earlier said from the funding, it's all Astronomy Outreach''
Please note that this is the first time they are doing drawing and many of them are primary school kids. Some are as small as 4 years old.
