Bringing small solar system bodies into the classroom - A Rosetta teacher conference in Kent

The overriding aim of this project is to provide physics teachers in the UK with a resource pack to enable the inclusion of real space science in their day to day lessons. The project will initially provide an update event in the form of a one day conference for local teachers and trainee teachers in Kent. It will be delivered in the style of the Institute of Physics (IOP) teacher update courses, of which the applicants have experience of running. This one day conference will introduce new scientific concepts and knowledge to teachers whilst also enhancing their understanding of some basic physics concepts through the use of exciting and relevant talks and workshops based on the Centre for Astronomy and Planetary Sciences research into small solar system bodies. This covers research previously funded by STFC and current research that is fully compatible with the STFC UK Roadmap for Solar System Research, as well as including the very relevant and topical Rosetta mission. The conference will take the format of a train the trainer event, where the participants will be empowered to take their knowledge back to the classroom and effectively facilitate discussions and participation with space science research within their classrooms and laboratories using our workshop materials.
Workshop materials will be produced in advance of the conference and refined based on feedback given at this time. These will then be made available to teachers all over the UK via the National STEM e-Library. This will be promoted through a number of routes including the Institute of Physics publication Classroom Physics allowing the project to have a wide reach. The project will promote interaction between real scientists involved in a current, well publicised, space mission with school teachers, providing insight into mission involvement at Kent, careers in science and the UK space programme. This project also aims to provide young postgraduate students with an opportunity to develop scientific communication skills including workshop development, presenting and writing.

For this project, dissemination will be the key factor if it is to reach the intended audience beyond the teachers attending our update event. As the project has many aspects to it the dissemination will be done in several ways.
Firstly by using the train the trainer approach not only will the teachers that attend our update event become more knowledgeable and confident when discussing scientific research in particular with small solar system bodies, the project will allow them to take that knowledge and pass it on to their students. Based on the estimate of 30 teachers attending our update event we would conservatively say that they would then in turn use the workshop resources to run a workshop for one of their physics cohorts (an estimate of 20 students per teacher).
Having had success before publishing within Classroom Physics and Education in Science we are confident that the resources and ideas in their final form (incorporating teacher and student feedback) could be publicised in the aforementioned education magazines and reach teachers nationally. By posting the resources in the National STEM e-Library we can add links to these publications so teachers can download the resource pack. Classroom Physics is sent as a physical magazine to 1870 physics teachers in the UK and the ASE publication Education in Science is published quarterly to members of ASE. Classroom physics is also sent out electronically. This will give the resources plenty of exposure to Physics teachers in the UK. Due to the applicants links with SEPnet, the resources can be disseminated to the other 8 university outreach officers for use in schools and also to be sent out on any teacher mailing lists. Dr Mason is a part of the IOP schools outreach support network which links outreach and school liaison officers all over the UK. This will provide another possible route for dissemination of the link to the resources.
Successful dissemination of the resource pack therefore has the potential to reach hundreds of teachers and thousands of students. The train the trainer approach alongside the dissemination methods give this project the possibility of significant impact via a potential multiplier effect.