Science Communication and Education

Conferences

• November 28, 2022:  Hosted, together with 4 more colleagues, a workshop during the Astronomer for Planet Earth Symposium called "Educational Resources for a Better World"

• November 18th, 2021: I presented a 12 min talk about CAI (Caribbean Astronomy for Inclusion) in the Astronomy Beyond the Common Senses conference.  The talk can be found here (it will at 3:40 hrs)

• October, 2021: 3rd Shaw-IAU conference: "The Low Tech High energy correlation in Astronomy Education" . 

• 2020: Global hands-on Universe conference. "Yoga and Mindfulness in Astronomy for early Education"

General Public

• August 11th, 2023: Eclipse Workshop the conference for students in UASD. 

• August 11th, 2023: a Talk about the Extra-Galactic Universe at the conference for students in UASD. 

• November 12, 2022: San Diego Children Museum: Space Night. Gravitational lensing explained with the purpose of understating the incredible James Webb's first image of SMACS 0723.

• October 8th, 2022: An online inclusive talk in the Dominican Republic about Celebrating the Earth through Astronomy, with an ASL interpreter.

• August 27th, 2022:  An invitation to talk about Tainos and Astronomy in the Museo Arqueologico Regional Altos de Chavón La Romana, Dominican Republic. 

• May 30th, 2022: Invited talk First Lego League of the Dominican Republic invites me to give a talk to the students of different schools in the Dominican Republic about the New image release of our Black Hole, it was called: The black Hole on our Backyard. 

• February 14th, 2022: An inclusive talk in the Dominican Republic about the History of Woman in Astronomy, with an ASL interpreter.

• December 14th, 2021: A talk, commemorating Henrietta Swan Leavitt in the 100th anniversary of her death.

• November 25th, 2021: A workshop about the  “The trigonometry of an eclipse” to the high school students of Colegio Padre Fortín, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. there.

• November 16th, 2021: A workshop for children ages 7-12 years old about the Lunar Eclipse. ( Lunar Eclipse Kids Workshop in Dominican Republic) 

• November 13, 2021: San Diego Children Museum: Space Night where we talked about the Moon, how big it is compared to the Earth, how far from us it is, and everything about the Lunar eclipse of November 19th, 2021. 

• November 5th, 2021:  Invitation to a talk in the university IEST ANÁHUAC in Tamaulipas, Mexico. About Woman in Astronomy.

• September 17th, 2021: Invitation to present our work in Inclusive Astronomy in the foro de inclusión y ciencia de la UNAH (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras). 

• July 19th, 2021: Public Talk via Zoom. "Un momento sin sombra que ilumina la ciencia". Invited by Manuel Grullón [NOC (Nacional Outreach Coordinator) of the IAU in Dominican Republic] and the Club Astronómico de Santiago.

• March & July 2021: Zero Shadow Day in the Dominican Republic. An event where we aimed to bring the attention of both teachers and students about the path of the Sun in the sky. In collaboration with IUCAA Science Center in Pune, India and the IAU National Outreach Coordination in the Dominican Republic.

• June - July 2021: NASE workshop. Organized and participated as an instructor in the Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE) workshop, a course on didactic of Astronomy, sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that aims to train primary teachers and secondary level teachers in the local language. Click here for more information.

• May 2021: CAP Conference. Participated with a talk in the Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP) conference with a talk called: ”Down to Earth Astronomy in the Dominican Republic”

• May 2021: NASE workshop. Organized and participated as an instructor in the Astrophysics module of the Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE), a course on didactic of Astronomy, sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that aims to train primary teachers and secondary level teachers in the local language.

• April 2021: NASE workshop. Organized and participated as an instructor in the Astronomy module of the Network for Astronomy School Education (NA- SE), a course on didactic of Astronomy, sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that aims to train primary teachers and secondary level teachers in the local language.

• March 2021: Sensory voyage through the Solar system. A workshop for the blind community in Dominican Republic. We built our model of the Solar System to scale using a rope. We tool our scale to be 1 finger as an Astronomical Unit. Once our model was built we traveled planet by planet, talking about then and listen to sounds when available

• January 2021: Faulkes Telescope observations with students from Pune, India. A short introduction about the electromagnetic spectrum was given to the students in preparation for their observations, where they were going to use the Red, Blue and Green filters. Because of bad weather, we could not observe. We continued with a workshop on how to to create RGB images, using salsaJ with FITS data available in Las Cumbres Observatory data base system. This was done in Collaboration with IUCAA Science Center, in Pune, India.

• January 2021: I wrote a document about astronomy and the Taínos.

• October 2020: December 2020: Faulkes Telescope observations with students from the Dominican Republic. A short introduction about the electromagnetic spectrum was given to the students in preparation for their observations, where they used the Red, Blue and Green filters. We continued with a workshop on how to to create RGB images, using salsaJ. This workshop was done in 3 different occasions.

• October November 2020: NASE workshop. Participated as an instructor in the Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE), a course on didactic of Astronomy, sponsored by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that aims to train primary teachers and secondary level professors in the local language.

• August 2020: Mindful and Yoga Astronomy. Presentation in the Global Hands-On Universe 2020 Conference.

• March 2019: Eratosthenes Students from all continents cooperate and collaborate to reproduce one of the science’s 10 most beautiful experiments of all time: Eratosthenes’ measurements of the circumference of the earth. I participated by guiding students from the Dominican Republic on how to do this experiment.

• 2017: Observations: Kids from a Public School of the Dominican Republic had time to use the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii, remotely. The weather was not helpful so the telescope could not be used but we had some data that the students were able to manipulate just as astronomers do.

• 2013: AstroCamp: I participated as a teacher on an Astro Camp experience. AstroCamp is an academic program in the field of astronomy and physics, providing participants with high-level and inspiring training. The program is intended for secondary school students. (https://www.astro.up.pt/astrocamp/2013/curso observations.html)

• April 2013: Homemade Astronomy: Constellations I was able to give a Workshop for teachers of the Dominican Republic on how to teach constellations to kids (and adults, too) in a “hands-on” way using materials easy to find.

• April 2013: Constellations I went to different schools of the Dominican Republic, both public and private, to teach about constellations on a hands-on way. We built constellations using scrap materials. We integrated the topics of math, astronomy, mythology, language, etc, while building our model and observing it from different perspectives.

• 2011: Toys from Trash: Translation to Spanish of science videos for kids, made by Toys from Trash in IUCAA, Pune, India.

• April-June 2011: Florence Planetarium: Lectures at Florence planetarium to students be- tween 6 and 8 years old.

• January 2011: Astronomy for kids: Lectures in different public schools in the Dominican Republic. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

• December 2010: Astronomy for kids. Lectures in different schools and in a children museum (Trampolín) in the Dominican Republic. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

• September 2009: Radioastronomy. Public talk at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN), Granada, Spain.

• August 2009: Radioastronomy. Public talk at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN), Granada, Spain.

• February 2009: Astronomy for kids. Lectures in different schools in the Dominican Republic. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

• February 2009: Astronomy Lectures and Sky View. Lectures in ”Museo de Historia Natural” and observations of the night skies with kids and adults. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

• August 2008: Radioastronomy. Public talk at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN), Granada, Spain.

• February 2008: Astronomy for kids Lectures in different schools in the Dominican Republic. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

• August 2006: Radioastronomy. Public talk at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN), Granada, Spain.

• November 2006: Extrasolar planets. A public talk at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

• July 2004: Saturn and Cassini. A public talk at an amateurs astronomical conference. Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic.

• 2003: Astronomy for kids. Working with kids in Ocean Planetarium. NJ, USA.

• 2000-Present: Astronomy for kids. Lectures in different schools in the Dominican Republic. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

• 2000: Astronomy for kids. Working with kids in Humbolt Planetarium. Caracas, Venezuela.

Media

• February 11, 2023: Interview  The Wormhole - Woman and Girls in Science Day: Dr. Breezy Ocaña Flaquer's journey to the stars.

• February 14th, 2022: Public Talk via Zoom. "Historia de la Mujer en la Astronomía".  Hosten by Club Astronómico de Santiago. 

• July 19th, 2021: Public Talk via Zoom. "Un momento sin sombra que ilumina la ciencia". Invited by Manuel Grullón [NOC (Nacional Outreach Coordinator) of the IAU in Dominican Republic] and the  Club Astronómico de Santiago.

• 2021: Indian News Paper: IUCAA joins hands with US-based observatory to demonstrate telescope for observing deep-sky objects

• 2020: Global hands-on Universe conference. "Yoga and Mindfulness in Astronomy for early Education"

• 2020: INDOTEL. Didactic Exposition: "La ciencia también es cosas de mujeres"

• 2018: Diario Libre: Interview in a Dominican Newspaper.

• 2015: Magazine Forbes Mexico: Breezy Ocaña: una astrofísica con luz propia

• 2013: Magazine Órbitas Científicas, "Entrevista a Breezy Ocaña y las Radio Galaxias" (page 64)

• 2012: Invitation to all Dominicans to observe the transit of Venus.