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Educational Activities with the Faulkes Telescopes Dr Sarah Roberts

Educational Activities with the Faulkes Telescopes Dr Sarah Roberts. Project History. Ft. FT Project began in 2001 with funding from Dill Faulkes Why? Inspirational projects in maths, science and ICT Address failing interest in these areas

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Educational Activities with the Faulkes Telescopes Dr Sarah Roberts

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  1. Educational Activities with the Faulkes Telescopes Dr Sarah Roberts

  2. Project History Ft • FT Project began in 2001 with funding from Dill Faulkes Why? • Inspirational projects in maths, science and ICT • Address failing interest in these areas • In 2005, FT project was taken over by LCOGTN as part of Wayne Rosing’s project to build a global network of robotic telescopes • Now known as FT project in the UK and Ireland, and LCOGTN elsewhere in the world • Projects in UK, Russia, Poland and Portugal…..

  3. UK Education FT/LCOGTN Initiatives: • Projects and Activities • Twinning schools in UK/US • Themed Observing Days • Portals - FANG and asteroids • Teacher Training • Online Training • School-based Support Centres In schools: • After-school Astronomy clubs • GCSE Astronomy groups • School workshops - Arts/Science week

  4. Projects and Activities • Introductory Activities • Using the software • Planning an observing session • Simple imaging • Worksheets • Measuring impact craters in Google Earth/Mars • Earth and Beyond • Light and Optics • Projects & Observing Programmes • Asteroids • Astronomical Imaging • Galaxies • Supernovae • Themed Observing

  5. Themed Observing Days • Collaborative projects for a number of schools through the day • Projects include: • Mosaic of M101 • Lifecycle of Stars poster • Asteroid Rotation

  6. Mosaic of M101 • 11 schools from UK, Russia and Poland each given 3 areas of galaxy to observe • Schools could make mini-mosaic, larger mosaic completed at end of night

  7. Lifecycle of Stars • 10 schools from UK and Poland were given specific objects to observe which showed stars at different stages of their lives • Schools could process their own images, as well as have their images on the final poster

  8. Asteroid Rotation • 10 schools from UK plus Hawaiian users observed 2 asteroids in one night • Magnitude of asteroids were measured with Astrometrica and light curves produced

  9. Portals • FANG (Faulkes Atlas of Nearby Galaxies) • Asteroids

  10. Focus Group and School-based Support Centres • Focus Group – group of teachers who give us advice on resources etc. • Involved in Support Centre network • Support Centres will work at a local, national and international level to help build a community of educators and observers • 11 schools have asked to be support centres • 1 fully trained and supporting users • 4 currently undergoing training

  11. Online Training • Courses currently online: • Introductory Courses • Astronomical Imaging • Coming soon…. • Asteroids • Lifecycle of Stars

  12. FT/LCOGTN in Poland British Council Projects • 13 schools and education centres across the country • SN follow-up program

  13. FT/LCOGTN in Russia • 24 schools in 5 regions 5 6 5 4 4

  14. Ekaterinburg • Approx. 120 school students and 30 university students participated in project. • Imaging open clusters and star forming regions previously imaged in IR • Successfully applied for time on 6-metre telescope for further observations

  15. Moscow • Extra-curricular study groups at the Astronomy Dept. of Moscow City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity • Observed PNe in collaboration with other Moscow schools • Presented work at: • Qualification Improvement courses for Physics & Astronomy teachers • Children’s Conference • Moscow Region Astronomy Teacher’s seminar

  16. Samara • 4 schools • Main aim - make and process observations of spiral and interacting galaxies • 34 school students in total were involved • Presented results at a number of conferences • 1st and 2nd prizes given to students involved in the project at Samara Region Scientific Conference of AstronomyStudents

  17. St Petersburg • Educational Objectives: • Motivate study of Astronomy and Sciences • Cross-curricular links (e.g. English language) • Hands-on skills from Astronomy lessons • Get students acquainted with research methods used in modern science • Looked for double asteroids and double trans-neptune objects • Carried out observations at Pulkovo Observatory due to school internet connection not working • Students from 6th and 11th forms took part

  18. FT/LCOGTN in Portugal • Hunting for open clusters around O stars • Developed in a Portugese High School together with NUCLIO and mentored by a professional astronomer • Students conduct the project in class-time • From a list of known O stars, students chose open clusters which would be suitable to observe before observing them with FTN

  19. Number of Users • In the UK we have: • Approx. 585 schools registered, 40 in Ireland • Overseas we have: • Poland – 13 schools and education centres • Russia – 24 schools • Portugal – 4/5 schools Now registering users for archive accounts – no telescope time, but access to data archive www.faulkes-telescope.com

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