Classroom Hangouts with Spacelink Experts: to extend and develop outreach and communication between the space science and the education communities
Lead Research Organisation:
Spacelink Learning Foundation
Department Name: Branch Office
Abstract
Classroom Hangouts with Spacelink Experts and STFC Scientists: to extend and develop outreach and communication between the space science and the education communities.
Google Hangouts will be used as a digital vehicle to facilitate communication and contact between schools and scientists from different areas to achieve the following aims:
1. Digital bridging of the Scientific and Education Communities: the Google+ platform offers the opportunity to broadcast webinars, or 'Hangouts on Air', to an unlimited online audience. Hangouts allow up to 9 active participants to interact through audio and video while anybody watching the Hangouts live on the Google+ page can submit questions via a chat SMS interface. 'Hangouts on Air' live broadcasts are also archived automatically as a video on YouTube.
2. Bringing school and scientific communities together and enabling the exchange of ideas and information between and amongst them. As well as facilitating the sharing of learning amongst schools, Hangouts will be used as a digital vehicle to facilitate communication and contact between scientists from different areas. These will include the Rosetta Mission (with input from the UK scientists involved in the mission's instruments and the ground based observing campaign), Gaia (with support from ESERO), space & climate physics including sun activity (with support from Dr Lucie Green and MSSL), planetary studies (with input from Dr Sheila Kanani), life in space (with input from Dr Helen Sharman).
3. Enthusing and educating young people about space and science by enabling them to talk directly to scientists in a wide range of space-related activities and question them about the mysteries they are exploring and their emerging discoveries.
4. Inspiring them to take STEM subjects throughout school and beyond, and to aspire to STEM-related careers: the range of expert speakers and topics covered will demonstrate how space studies can relate to life on earth and the importance of science and engineering to everything we depend on for the lives we wish to live.
5. Inspiring girls in particular to take STEM subjects and go into science and engineering careers, using female scientists as role models. Spacelink's own team includes Dr Helen Sharman, a chemist and the first British astronaut to go into space; Dr Lucie Green, a space and climate physicist specialising in sun activity; and Dr Sheila Kanani, a planetary scientist and inspiring "space comedian" presenter.
6. Targeting primary schools as well as secondary schools to capture and embed interest during Key Stage 2. Research has shown that whereas student interest in science has been high and with little gender difference at age 10, interest drops, particularly amongst girls, by age 14, and students who have not already formed an expectation of pursuing higher level science studies are very unlikely to develop science-related aspirations after age 14. The majority of primary school teachers are not science specialists, so supportive resources and opportunities to draw on the experience of others will provide a particularly welcome stimulus for them in preparing STEM lessons.
The pilot and initial rollout year will allow us to gather experience and knowledge about how to run Hangout sessions to bring Space Experts into UK classrooms. We very much hope to be able to develop and mainstream the project further in future years, and may wish to apply for further funding from STFC to this end.
Google Hangouts will be used as a digital vehicle to facilitate communication and contact between schools and scientists from different areas to achieve the following aims:
1. Digital bridging of the Scientific and Education Communities: the Google+ platform offers the opportunity to broadcast webinars, or 'Hangouts on Air', to an unlimited online audience. Hangouts allow up to 9 active participants to interact through audio and video while anybody watching the Hangouts live on the Google+ page can submit questions via a chat SMS interface. 'Hangouts on Air' live broadcasts are also archived automatically as a video on YouTube.
2. Bringing school and scientific communities together and enabling the exchange of ideas and information between and amongst them. As well as facilitating the sharing of learning amongst schools, Hangouts will be used as a digital vehicle to facilitate communication and contact between scientists from different areas. These will include the Rosetta Mission (with input from the UK scientists involved in the mission's instruments and the ground based observing campaign), Gaia (with support from ESERO), space & climate physics including sun activity (with support from Dr Lucie Green and MSSL), planetary studies (with input from Dr Sheila Kanani), life in space (with input from Dr Helen Sharman).
3. Enthusing and educating young people about space and science by enabling them to talk directly to scientists in a wide range of space-related activities and question them about the mysteries they are exploring and their emerging discoveries.
4. Inspiring them to take STEM subjects throughout school and beyond, and to aspire to STEM-related careers: the range of expert speakers and topics covered will demonstrate how space studies can relate to life on earth and the importance of science and engineering to everything we depend on for the lives we wish to live.
5. Inspiring girls in particular to take STEM subjects and go into science and engineering careers, using female scientists as role models. Spacelink's own team includes Dr Helen Sharman, a chemist and the first British astronaut to go into space; Dr Lucie Green, a space and climate physicist specialising in sun activity; and Dr Sheila Kanani, a planetary scientist and inspiring "space comedian" presenter.
6. Targeting primary schools as well as secondary schools to capture and embed interest during Key Stage 2. Research has shown that whereas student interest in science has been high and with little gender difference at age 10, interest drops, particularly amongst girls, by age 14, and students who have not already formed an expectation of pursuing higher level science studies are very unlikely to develop science-related aspirations after age 14. The majority of primary school teachers are not science specialists, so supportive resources and opportunities to draw on the experience of others will provide a particularly welcome stimulus for them in preparing STEM lessons.
The pilot and initial rollout year will allow us to gather experience and knowledge about how to run Hangout sessions to bring Space Experts into UK classrooms. We very much hope to be able to develop and mainstream the project further in future years, and may wish to apply for further funding from STFC to this end.
Planned Impact
We will set up a Google+ webpage for the project and will join Google Connected Classrooms thus accessing an excellent platform for publicising the events in both real time and archived format. Google+ support includes promotion via other G+ pages and other media.
We will use Linkup, Spacelink's newsletter, to assist in recruiting schools to the project. This is currently published monthly and emailed actively to 500 schools (with a steadily growing mailing list) as well as being available freely on our website. Our website will also focus on the project and link to the specialised Google+ webpage. Again, these media will enable us both to publicise Spacelink's Hangouts in advance to recruit participants and live-time viewers, and also to promote downloading the archived material after the events.
We network actively with complementary organisations working with schools such as the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO), Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), Group for Earth Observations (GEO), Surrey Science & Technology Resource Office (SATRO), the British Interplanetary Society, National Space Centre, Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics network (STEMNET), Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). We will involve all these organisations in our pre-event and post-event publicity in order to link into their contact mechanisms to publicise the events in advance and disseminate the resulting materials. We will also disseminate our evaluation reports through these complementary networks.
The personnel involved in the project have highly relevant professional networks, as can be seen from the details in the list of project personnel above. They will use these to disseminate information about the impact of the project and links to the material on our Google+ page.
Schools participating in the project will be encouraged to post links to our Google+ page and / or reports and video recordings of Hangouts on their own websites and in their newsletters and other publicity.
We will use Linkup, Spacelink's newsletter, to assist in recruiting schools to the project. This is currently published monthly and emailed actively to 500 schools (with a steadily growing mailing list) as well as being available freely on our website. Our website will also focus on the project and link to the specialised Google+ webpage. Again, these media will enable us both to publicise Spacelink's Hangouts in advance to recruit participants and live-time viewers, and also to promote downloading the archived material after the events.
We network actively with complementary organisations working with schools such as the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO), Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), Group for Earth Observations (GEO), Surrey Science & Technology Resource Office (SATRO), the British Interplanetary Society, National Space Centre, Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics network (STEMNET), Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). We will involve all these organisations in our pre-event and post-event publicity in order to link into their contact mechanisms to publicise the events in advance and disseminate the resulting materials. We will also disseminate our evaluation reports through these complementary networks.
The personnel involved in the project have highly relevant professional networks, as can be seen from the details in the list of project personnel above. They will use these to disseminate information about the impact of the project and links to the material on our Google+ page.
Schools participating in the project will be encouraged to post links to our Google+ page and / or reports and video recordings of Hangouts on their own websites and in their newsletters and other publicity.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Diana Cross (Principal Investigator) |
| Description | These are the key points that have arisen from the planning and execution of the hangouts run in schools. A great deal has been learnt from the project so far. The needs and requirements of schools has been a key issue. These include: timetabling needs, appropriate content, organisation of the session and also the technical requirements. Planning the date and time of a hangout is very important. The key speaker (scientist) needs to be available at the same time as an appropriate class (age group) is available, usually during a timetabled science lesson. The speaker needs to be aware of his/her audience and ensure the content is appropriate. To fit into lesson time of one school period, hangouts need to be limited to under half an hour. Initially these were split 50/50, an initial talk (podcast style) followed by a Q&A session. A shorter talk, with questions during it have a greater impact with the students than a timed monologue from the speaker. A greater emphasis on the Q&A does give more interaction and exploit the features offered by e-communication. There are limiting technical factors which are broadband associated. The school's broadband bandwidth is important and must be good enough to ensure a good video link. Many schools have filtering and/or firewalls which can cause a problem. IT departments need to be contacted and briefed before an event. The hangouts that have taken place, have been well received and there has been very positive feedback from the Students, Staff and Schools involved. Below is the initial data (a table will not insert, each question reads vertically down for each column). Key Stage of Pupils on Hangout Number of Pupils on Hangout Number of Hangout Pupils who are Widening Participation/Pupil Premium/Free School Meals in Last 6 years Number of Hangout Pupils who are girls How Positive Did Pupils Feel About STEM Subjects Before Hangout? How Positive Did Pupils Feel About STEM Subjects After Hangout? How Would You Rate Pupils Engagement During the Hangout? How Valuable Do you think the Hangout was for Your Pupils? How Valuable do you think the Hangout was for your Development? 5 12 4 5 8 9 10 10 8 5 11 3 6 8 10 9 10 10 2 32 3 14 8 9 10 10 10 2 32 4 15 8 9 9 10 10 |
| Exploitation Route | Finding the correct contact in a school. Students find interaction via Hangouts stimulating. Students find the media of space exciting. Research into gender equality in STEM |
| Sectors | Education |
| URL | http://spacelink.org/meet-an-astronaut/active-zone/google-hangouts/ |
| Description | Since mid-2018 we have been streaming the Hangouts on YouTube. We have found that the presentations are also being viewed by a wider audience.Viewing figures vary from 40 to 193 for the topic "Renewable |Energy. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
| Impact Types | Societal |