National Awards Scheme 2005 winners

Successful applicants in Round 2005

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Mr Kevin Yates
National Space Centre, Exploration Drive, Leicester, LE4 5NS
Tel: 0116 258 2130

SPACE NOW: TODAY'S NEWS FROM SPACE

Award - £100,000
This project will transform the Space Now gallery at the National Space Centre to better tell Today's News from Space. It will communicate the latest developments in space science through live presentations and digital content, both within a gallery themed around a News Studio and on a website. It will create the infrastructure for reaching the widest possible audience and will deliver quality content from research, industry and government sources across the UK and European space communities.

At the heart of the gallery will be the News Studio, where live bulletins will be presented. In the gallery, visitors will be able to explore the news content through touch screens, large plasma displays and handheld computers. The new website will mirror the content and dynamism of the gallery. The project will:

• Lay foundations for engaging students in the subject of space and the physical sciences
  
• Promote further education and career opportunities in industry sectors requiring skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
  
• Showcase UK and European space activities within the context of telling today's news from space
  
• Enhance the National Space Centre visitor experience

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Dr Richard Beare
Institute of Education, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
Tel: 024 7652 3847

ASTRONOMY AND SPACE FOR GIFTED AND TALENTED STUDENTS

Award - £60,000
The project will deliver an investigative astronomy education project, targeting gifted and talented students in UK secondary schools. This will produce resources for use with the Faulkes Telescope Project which aim to be challenging and open-ended. They will be sufficiently flexible for use by different age groups. Full documentation for teachers and students will be made available by download from the project website.

Support for teachers will be provided through targeted CPD designed to reach key people, provision of all materials on the web and collaboration with other bodies involved in CPD (such as the science learning centres and the ASE and IOP).

Collaboration with the National Association for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY) will enable wider use of the project materials through its various events for gifted and talented students. In addition, the projects developed will be of benefit to all secondary age students through mutual exchange of ideas and materials with other Council funded astronomy initiatives (Faulkes Telescope Project, National Redshift Project, National Schools Observatory and others).

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Dr Lee Thompson
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield, S3 7RH
Tel: 0114 222 4577

CREATE: COSMIC RAY EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS FOR TEACHING

Award - £30,000
This project is to construct cosmic ray detectors to be located in secondary schools in the cities of Durham, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield. These will be used to demonstrate a number of key concepts in particle physics and astrophysics. The hands-on access to the "big science" topics provided by these detectors will help excite students interest in physics in general and in the Council science in particular.

The CREATE project team aims to design prototype cosmic ray detectors which are easy to use and construct and able to deliver the projects teaching objectives as well as being reasonably priced, reliable and suitable for a school environment. These prototype detectors will then be deployed in schools in the represented cities, the feedback from which will lead to a final detector design.

In support of these activities, the project team plans to develop a web site to provide support material for teachers and students, and will develop printed materials for support and publicity including posters for conferences and other key events.