Indonesia-Malaysia Project on Astronomy Education using Tactile Image (IMPACT Dome).
Teaching astronomy to visual and hearing impared student is a new topic in Malaysia. Less effort has been allocated to teach astronomy for inclusive and impared students. This is due to lack of needs to emphasize astronomy and it leads to insufficient learning tools and teaching aids produced to teach them. This issue has triggered us to promote astronomy and its benefits for inclusive and impaired students.
Apadilangit has developed a miniature Malaysia sky in the form of a geodesic dome with tactile images. This will help visually and hearing impaired kids to experience our sky via touching sense. Our modular dome can be assembled and disassembled easily for teaching and logistical purposes. Every single piece of the triangle build for the dome can be used as teaching tools separately for each kid.
This project was a grant project by the Office of Astronomy for Development IAU (international Astronomical Union) in 2018. Apadilangit ; Universe Awareness Malaysia collaborated with University of Ahmad Dahlan Indonesia to develop 2 models of Impact dome to be used as mini planetariums in this region.It was presented during IAUS 358: Astronomy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion symposium in the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Mitaka, Tokyo Japan in 2019.