The Space Around Us
Lead Research Organisation:
Aerospace Bristol
Department Name: Fundraising
Abstract
Project aims:
- To engage children with low science capital and help them understand and get to grips with how scientists explore space through the use of big telescopes.
- To encourage children to be interested in pursuing a career in STEM and Space Science.
- To encourage children to think about the relevance of space exploration and its contribution to the enhancement of society.
- To allow children to understand the work and cause of the STFC and how this relates to the aerospace industry and educational opportunities.
- To allow an STFC researcher from the University of Bristol to develop their public engagement skills and inspire young people to follow in their footsteps!
- To adapt our learning programme in light of a global pandemic by developing remote learning, to allow us to continue engaging children in STEM learning whilst exploring new ways of earning income for the museum outside of this project.
Overall impact: C. 1400 schoolchildren from deprived backgrounds will have a greater understanding of the reasons and scientific concepts behind space exploration and Big Telescopes, and be excited and inspired by the subject. The project will broaden engagement with an STFC funded area of science and allow a researcher from the University of Bristol to improve their own public engagement skills whilst sharing their work to inspire a new audience and generation.
- To engage children with low science capital and help them understand and get to grips with how scientists explore space through the use of big telescopes.
- To encourage children to be interested in pursuing a career in STEM and Space Science.
- To encourage children to think about the relevance of space exploration and its contribution to the enhancement of society.
- To allow children to understand the work and cause of the STFC and how this relates to the aerospace industry and educational opportunities.
- To allow an STFC researcher from the University of Bristol to develop their public engagement skills and inspire young people to follow in their footsteps!
- To adapt our learning programme in light of a global pandemic by developing remote learning, to allow us to continue engaging children in STEM learning whilst exploring new ways of earning income for the museum outside of this project.
Overall impact: C. 1400 schoolchildren from deprived backgrounds will have a greater understanding of the reasons and scientific concepts behind space exploration and Big Telescopes, and be excited and inspired by the subject. The project will broaden engagement with an STFC funded area of science and allow a researcher from the University of Bristol to improve their own public engagement skills whilst sharing their work to inspire a new audience and generation.
Planned Impact
The project will have an online presence via Aerospace Bristol's website and social media where appropriate. Resources will be downloadable from the website for schools and simple versions of activities and resources will be added to 'At Home with Aerospace Bristol', our platform for at home engagement, created after Aerospace Bristol closed to the public in March. This will be continued as via a 'Resources & Activities' link on our website during the Year of Space, sharing activities and information to further reach those who struggle to access the museum. The online resources will also be available for the University of Bristol to use and share on their own platforms. We would be delighted to recognise STFC as the funders, referencing STFC wherever appropriate. Results of the evaluation will be shared with the University of Bristol as to the effectiveness of their researchers undertaking public engagement, both in general and more specifically at Aerospace Bristol. We will share any resources and evaluation across our networks. We are proud to chair the South Gloucestershire Museums and Heritage Group, sharing learning and advice with a number of volunteer-led heritage organisations and are committed to playing a leadership role to support the heritage sector into the future, sharing learning and advice with our partners.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Martha Lewington (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | University of Bristol Astrophysics department |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Department | School of Physics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The learning team worked with our partners to develop the Hubble explorers and Light fantastic Activity sessions. The learning team contacted the schools and coordinated the booking of their visits to our museum. The learning team delivered and evaluated all of the face-to-face activity sessions. Aerospace Bristol also hosted the written in the Stars online Live event and edited the footage and released it as a YouTube Series of resources. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partners at the University of Bristol worked with us to develop the Hubble Explorers and Light Fantastic Big Telescopes Activity Sessions. They also wrote and delivered the careers talks for the Written in the Stars online Live event. |
| Impact | Collaboratively created Hubble explorer and Light fantastic activity sessions Collaborated on the written in the stars online live event |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Hubble explorers workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In this interactive workshop, Key stage 2 pupils explore light and how it can be harnessed to discover the great beyond. They will build their own pinhole camera to transfer light in their own creation. These sessions have proved to be very popular with 6 schools having attended sessions so far and a further.... booked. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| Description | Light Fantastic- spectrometry and space workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In this investigative workshop Key stage 3 students build their own spectrometer and discover how we use light from across the cosmos to explore and understand the nature of the universe via absorption and emission spectra, Doppler shift and much more. So far we have held 1 workshops with a further.... booked. Reception to this workshop has been extremely positive with teachers commenting that students had felt much more engaged following on from the session. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| Description | Written in the stars - Astrophysics live stream |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A virtual event hosted via a Zoom platform featuring talks and demonstrations by Bristol university and Aerospace Bristol's Learning Officers. The online event allowed speakers to tell their story, undertake virtual demonstrations and provided information and advice on steps to pursue a career related to space. We took advantage of the functionality of Zoom Enterprise to create different rooms and interactive elements. The talks and demonstrations provided a starting point for discussions and Q&As, as well as for students to virtually interact with those from different schools and discuss interesting topics. We ran two events with a reach of 902 students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |