UK National Schools' Astronomer

继两次PPARC为支持英国天文教育而获得国家天文学奖后，我希望通过PPARC S+S奖学金继续和发展这项工作的方方面面。我希望开发的一个特殊方面是过去两年在卡迪夫大学研究生院内举办的一个非常成功的“科学传播”研讨会的延伸。我的提议将允许我每年在英国各地的大学和区域中心举办10次研讨会，特别是针对专业和业余天文学家。讲习班将教育天文学家(特别是年轻的研究生和博士后)与学校受众打交道的要求，但也包含涉及一般科学传播技能以及媒体和公共工作的宝贵内容。我设想的这一角色的另一个关键职能是维持现有的区域中心网络，这些中心可以作为培训场所和参与机器人天文学的学校的“服务台”。目前由大约12个站点组成的松散网络可以很容易地将规模扩大一倍(现有的意向书)，但承诺在每个站点提供培训、研讨会和用户支持需要更多的工作人员时间。NSA角色的最后一部分将是一个在线元素，基于现有的资源和新闻网站www.天文-Education ation.com。该网站成立于2005年，旨在支持英国深度影响小型奖励项目，但事实证明，它在寻找指向合适资源等的网站的英国教师中非常受欢迎。虽然不是巴斯托报告推荐的一站式网站，但它肯定有潜力在英国天文/空间教育界增加使用，特别是在支持快速增长的GCSE天文学课程方面。这三个要素结合在一起，为英国的教育工作者，以及在较小程度上为学生提供了一个帮助和支持的结构，在这个结构中，许多其他PPARC支持的倡议将获得巨大的好处。至少，该提案将在天文学/空间科学界培养出数百名训练有素的学校演讲者，在英国各地的场馆运营一个久经考验的教师培训计划(其中有训练有素的个人可以帮助当地的学校)，以及一个支持英国学校对天文/空间兴趣的专题和有针对性的网站。

Following two PPARC National Award bids to support astronomy education in the UK, primarily through the role of 'National Schools' Astronomer' (NSA), I wish to continue and develop aspects of this work through a PPARC S+S Fellowship. The particular aspect that I wish to develop is an extension of a highly successful 'science communication' workshop delivered for the past 2 years within the Graduate School at Cardiff University. My proposal would allow me to run 10 workshops each year at universities and regional centres around the UK, targeting professional and amateur astronomers in particular. The workshops would educate astronomers (and young postgrads and postdocs in particular) in the requirements for dealing with schools audiences, but also contain valuable elements dealing with general science communication skills and media and public work. The other key function I envisage for this role would be to maintain the existing regional network of centres that can act as training sites and 'help desks' for schools involved with robotic astronomy. The current loose network of around a dozen sites could easily be doubled in size (with existing expressions of interest), but the commitment of providing training, workshops and user support at each site requires additional staff time. The final part of the NSA role would be an online element, based around the existing resource and news website, www.astronomy-education.com. This site was established to support the Deep Impact UK small award project in 2005, but has proven very popular with UK teachers looking for a site that points them at suitable resources etc. Whilst not the one-stop-shop website that was recommended by the Barstow Report, it certainly has the potential to grow in use amongst the UK astronomy/space education community, particularly in support of the fast-growing GCSE Astronomy course. These three elements all link together to provide a 'help and support' structure for UK educators, and to a lesser extent students, within which many other PPARC-supported initiatives would gain great benefits. At the very least, the proposal would produce several hundred better-trained schools' speakers from within the astronomy/space science community, a tried-and-tested teacher training programme running at venues across the UK (and at which there are trained individuals who can assist schools in the local area) and a topical and targeted website supporting UK schools interests in astronomy/space.