Large awards scheme 2008 winners

Successful applicants in round 2008

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Mr P Ashton
H000410/1
Teachers TV

“Journey through the Cosmos“

Award - £70,000.00

Teachers’ TV consider International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009 to be an ideal opportunity to create fresh and modern resources to improve the teaching of astronomy in schools and to utilise the inspirational values of space and astronomy for students.

Recent astronomy series such as “The Complete Cosmos” and The Institute of Physics Schools lectures in 2008 and 2009 have targeted students or the general public. This project will develop these ideas by making TV programmes and resources that specifically target classroom teachers. These will not only provide knowledge of astronomy, but also ideas for teaching and engaging students, as well as informing of other projects they can use in their teaching. Many of these other projects have received STFC funding such as the Down 2 Earth website, Astro-projects and the National Schools’ Observatory. These teaching plans will be freely available and will feature current projects and missions in order to maximise their relevance and impact on the next generation of astronomers.

The Institute of Physics (IOP) regularly consults with teachers through their affiliated schools scheme and their teacher network. A recent collaboration between the IOP and Glasshead on Teaching Radioactivity demonstrated how much this initiative was appreciated by Teachers who have said they want advice on how to teach these topics.

Few teachers, even Physics specialists, have little formal training in astronomy. Topics from astronomy feature in the science curriculum and thus are clearly recognised as being a significant part of education.

The main aim of this project is to improve secondary school Science teachers’ knowledge of astronomy, by focusing on the topics that are featured in the Key Stage 3 and GCSE. There will be four 15 minute programmes covering different aspects of astronomy aimed at Teachers such topics to include, The Solar System, Stars and Galaxies, and Cosmology. Teachers notes will be supplied and will contain details of demonstrations and practical experiments. Programmes will be broadcast on Teachers TV and available on the website for at least three years. DVDs containing both videos and other resources will be distributed directly to the Institute of Physics’ affiliated schools.

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Dr PC Hargrave
H000453/1
Cardiff University

"The UK Herschel Outreach Programme"

Award £85,000.00

The Herschel Space Observatory was launched in May 2009. This project aims to maximise the educational and public outreach opportunities afforded by this misson.

Hitherto the UK Herschel Outreach Group was formed on a voluntary basis chaired by Prof Matt Griffin with membership comprised of key members of the UK Herschel Community and education/science communication professionals from the Faulkes Telescope project and Science Made Simple. This group will continue to support and guide the programme funded by the Large Award.

The outreach programme will have the following elements:

• Herschel Outreach Officer – a dedicated single-point of contact for UK Herschel education and public engagement activities
  
  
• Further performances of a show for schools developed by Science Made Simple as a STFC Small Award
  
  
• Herschel exhibitions- fixed and travelling exhibits
  
  
• Website development - with full interactive and educational content, linked to the national curriculum
  
  
• Popular talks by Herschel science team members
  
  
• Media training for Herschel team members
  
  
• Herschel portable art installation-developed by contracted artist with content based on an interpretation of artwork produced by schools

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Mr R Hill
H000445/1
Armagh Planetarium

”ELVIS : Engaging Learners in Virtual Interactive Science”

Award £15,000.00

Funding has been granted for a project to develop a virtual version of an STFC research facility and populate it with avatars (based on actual scientists) that can interact with users and teach them about science and technology on screen. It will be created using Thinking Worlds, which is a well established and proven educational tool for producing 3D environments within which users can explore, interact, engage with and generally experience in a virtual sense. Thinking Worlds has previously been used by the European Space Agency and the USA based project Universe Quest.

The first learning experience will be based around ISIS Second Target Station.

Learners will be able to walk around the ISIS Second Target Station to meet the UK scientists at the forefront of materials research; they will discover how this research may lead to breakthroughs that will underpin the next generation of super-fast computers ,data storage, sensors, pharmaceutical and medical applications, materials processing, biotechnology and clean energy technology.

The target audience will be 11-18 year olds, families, the general public and education professionals. The projected is intended to explore whether a 3D learning environment such as Thinking Worlds can be used to engage the target audience with the work of STFC, particularly the secondary students. It is hoped that doing so will open up to them the possibilities of working in this exciting field and obtaining the skills necessary to do so.

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Dr P Roche
H000461/1
Cardiff University

”Back down to Earth”

Award £30,000.00

This project will improve and extend a highly successful STFC science centre project “Down to Earth”, as follows:

The reach of the current Down to Earth (D2E) project will be extended by additional partners as part of the Beacons of Public Engagement project (by adding Glamorgan University, Techniquest and BBC Wales – thus becoming a partnership across the whole consortium).

It is hoped to improve the delivery of this project in North Wales by providing loan boxes resources to 2 sites and capitalising on the fortuitous coincidence of IYA 2009, the 60th anniversary of the landing of the Beddgelert meteorite (21st September 1949), and Owain Glyndwr Day on 16th September. The partnership intends to run a week long science/arts/history event in the region.

Lesson plans will be developed together with workshops to support the Impact Calculator and further develop this extremely successful resource to add additional features and improve functionality in response to user feedback.

A fourth loan box and accompanying background notes, lesson plans and worksheets covering Astrobiology will be developed.

Additional classroom display items to accompany the loan boxes will be provided. These will include Lunar and Mars globes in bespoke boxes, classroom display panels and models of Martian and Lunar rovers, with associated educational materials.

Access will be provided to an X-Ray Diffractometer for post-16 students involved in the D2E project. With this they will be able to compare the mineral composition of terrestrial rocks and those of extra terrestrial origin and learn to use analytical data and microscope images to further their investigations.