Back Down to Earth - Expanding D2E to Scotland and Northern Ireland

回到现实 - 将 D2E 扩展到苏格兰和北爱尔兰

• 批准号: ST/L000245/1
• 负责人: Jana Horak
• 金额: $ 6.37万
• 依托单位: National Museum Wales
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2013 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FL000245%2F1
• 关键词: Back; Down; Earth; Expanding; D2E

The D2E project is a highly successful, STFC-funded programme delivering high quality astronomy education resources in the form of meteorite loan boxes, online lesson plans and an online asteroid/comet impact simulator (available in 8 languages). The loan scheme is currently run from Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (AC-NMW) in Cardiff, from where it reaches ~5,000 students/yr (ages 10-16) and ~3,000 general public/yr through outreach - figures have been fairly constant since the D2E scheme started in mid-2007. Specific events, targeted at hard-to-reach audiences engage significant numbers annually (e.g. Beddgelert meteorite festival, N. Wales, Sept. 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of the fall). We also made good use of national initiatives such as the BBC Stargazing Live in January 2011, 2012 and again in 2013 when D2E loan boxes were used extensively to support Stargazing Live programmes via outreach events at AC-NMW (National Museum Cardiff) and across Wales reaching c. 5,000 people during that week. We would like to extend this successful formula, and cascade our experience to new partners. By providing additional loan boxes, and teaching and management resources, we will facilitate the creation of two new loan hubs for D2E resources in Scotland and Northern Ireland, providing these countries with national centres for the scheme. These two hubs were selected as they have comparable national identities and organisations to Wales, and are run by the respective ESERO-UK Space Ambassadors (Tom Mason, Dan Hillier). Our experience in providing a national service in a small nation is of particular relevance, as is that of reaching geographically isolated and hard-to-reach communities. Part of our hard-to-reach programme includes provision of educational materials in a bilingual format, something not typically delivered by other science pubic awareness projects. For Scotland and NI, we will work with the hubs to produce Scots/Irish Gaelic versions of the key educational resource materials. We will share our gained experience with our partners, enabling them to be well equipped and supported to run their own schemes, and work effectively with STFC researchers. Crucially, it will extend the reach of the project beyond the current regions of Wales to schools/museums who have expressed an interest (i.e. AC-NMW sent loan boxes to Edinburgh, Exeter, Bristol and Salisbury in 2012). Armagh Planetarium helps to disseminate information on STFC-funded research carried out at the Armagh Observatory, such as the newly discovered populations of small satellites orbiting the giant planets, and the processes by which comets decay into meteoroid streams, but do not currently hold handling collections. This project will therefore not only provide much needed resources for public engagement at the Planetarium, but also a way of engaging audiences throughout Northern Ireland who may not be able to visit the Planetarium themselves. The Royal Observatory Edinburgh visitor centre highlights a broad range of STFC-funded research, and in particular the work of the Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC). New mini meteorite loan kits produced for ROE will also support the work of Dark Skies partners in Scotland. We wish to develop further our programme of hard-to-reach audience by evaluating how we might interface with national agendas such as the Child Poverty Strategy for Wales. This will be trialed initially in Wales and then evaluated to establish if a similar approach is appropriate for the two new hub areas. We have evaluated and concluded that potential risks to the project on a practical level these are low. The production of the educational materials is based on a well developed process for curriculum analysis, developing lesson plans, and identifying appropriate teachers' materials. There is therefore a clear mechanism in place to ensure the delivery of resources to the centres within the first 9 months of the project.

D2E 项目是一个非常成功的、由 STFC 资助的项目，以陨石借阅箱、在线课程计划和在线小行星/彗星撞击模拟器（提供 8 种语言）的形式提供高质量的天文学教育资源。该贷款计划目前由卡迪夫的 Amgueddfa Cymru - 威尔士国家博物馆 (AC-NMW) 运营，每年通过外展活动覆盖约 5,000 名学生（10-16 岁）和约 3,000 名普通公众 - 自 2007 年中期启动 D2E 计划以来，这一数字一直相当稳定。针对难以接触到的观众的特定活动每年都会吸引大量观众（例如 2009 年 9 月在北威尔士举办的贝德格勒特陨石节，以纪念秋季 60 周年）。我们还充分利用了国家举措，例如 2011 年 1 月、2012 年和 2013 年的 BBC Stargazing Live，当时 D2E 贷款箱被广泛使用，通过在 AC-NMW（卡迪夫国家博物馆）和整个威尔士举办的外展活动来支持 Stargazing Live 项目，达到了约 100 万英里。那周有 5,000 人。我们希望扩展这一成功模式，并将我们的经验传递给新的合作伙伴。通过提供额外的贷款箱以及教学和管理资源，我们将促进在苏格兰和北爱尔兰建立两个新的 D2E 资源贷款中心，为这些国家提供该计划的国家中心。选择这两个中心是因为它们具有与威尔士相似的国家身份和组织，并且由各自的 ESERO-UK 太空大使（汤姆·梅森、丹·希利尔）管理。我们在小国提供国民服务方面的经验特别重要，就像为地理上偏僻且难以到达的社区提供服务一样。我们难以实现的计划的一部分包括提供双语格式的教育材料，这是其他科学公众意识项目通常不会提供的内容。对于苏格兰和北爱尔兰，我们将与中心合作制作苏格兰/爱尔兰盖尔语版本的关键教育资源材料。我们将与我们的合作伙伴分享我们所获得的经验，使他们能够拥有良好的装备和支持来运行自己的计划，并与 STFC 研究人员有效地合作。至关重要的是，它将将该项目的覆盖范围扩展到威尔士当前地区之外，扩展到已表示感兴趣的学校/博物馆（即 AC-NMW 于 2012 年向爱丁堡、埃克塞特、布里斯托尔和索尔兹伯里发送了借阅箱）。阿马天文馆帮助传播有关 STFC 资助的阿马天文台研究的信息，例如新发现的围绕巨型行星运行的小卫星群，以及彗星衰变成流星体流的过程，但目前没有处理收藏。因此，该项目不仅将为天文馆的公众参与提供急需的资源，而且还为北爱尔兰各地可能无法亲自参观天文馆的观众提供了一种吸引的方式。爱丁堡皇家天文台游客中心重点介绍 STFC 资助的广泛研究，特别是天文学技术中心 (ATC) 的工作。为 ROE 生产的新迷你陨石贷款套件也将支持苏格兰黑暗天空合作伙伴的工作。我们希望通过评估如何与威尔士儿童贫困战略等国家议程相结合，进一步发展我们的难以接触受众的计划。这将首先在威尔士进行试验，然后进行评估，以确定类似的方法是否适合这两个新的枢纽区域。我们评估并得出结论，该项目在实际层面上的潜在风险很低。教育材料的制作基于完善的课程分析、制定课程计划和确定适当的教师材料的流程。因此，有一个明确的机制来确保在项目的前 9 个月内向各中心提供资源。