Educational community · part of the Recovery of Ukrainian Astronomy
AstroSandbox
A community of Ukrainian astronomers that helps schoolchildren across Ukraine learn astronomy. Known in Ukrainian as АстроПісочниця.
About
AstroSandbox makes astronomy education accessible to secondary-school students, particularly those in the upper grades. It grew out of the enthusiasm of Ukrainian astronomers who wanted to share the subject widely, and it has become one of the most active astronomy-education communities in the country.
Its work spans several channels:
- A 100-hour online astronomy course with recorded webinars.
- Short educational videos on specific astronomy topics.
- The annual "Astronomy Battles", team competitions where students present their solutions.
- A database of thousands of problems from Ukrainian and international olympiads.
- Visiting lecture series across Ukrainian cities, and astronomy circles run together with academic institutions.
The community works with the Institute of Aerospace Technologies at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the Physics Department of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, with support from Lecturers Without Borders and Astronomy for Equity.
Why it is part of the recovery
Education and public engagement is one of the directions of the Recovery Plan for Ukrainian Astronomy. Through the war, AstroSandbox has kept the next generation engaged with astronomy, nurturing the human capital on which the long-term recovery of the field depends.