Kickstart the Universe: crowdfunding campaign aims to send astronomy educational resources around the globe

Posted on 28 May 2014 by Sarah Roberts

In January 2014, the Cardiff University’s Universe in the Classroom project began providing welsh primary schools with new and innovative tools to teach improve the teaching of science across the country. One of these resources was the Universe-in-a-Box educational toolkit Universe-in-a-Box is a selection of hands-on astronomy materials — including a scale model of the
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Happy Birthday Herschel!

Posted on 27 May 2014 by Chris North

May 2014 marked the 5th anniversary of the launch of the Herschel Space Observatory. To mark the occasion, for this month’s astronomy instalment of Pythagoras’ Trousers I decided to interview a few people about their experience of Herschel. The interviews all took place in Paris, where many members of the mission and instrument teams were
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Alien Fish, Comets and the Goldilocks Zone at Primary Workshop

Posted on 22 May 2014 by Sarah Roberts

Around 70% of Earth’s surface is covered by liquid water, but does water exist anywhere else in the Solar System? If you don’t know the answer to this question, the pupils of Maesglas Primary School can help! Yesterday, year 3 and 4 students of the school in Newport (South Wales) were treated to a Universe
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Capturing the Universe through the medium of Welsh

Posted on 9 May 2014 by Peri Jones

On Wednesday afternoon, 7th May 2014, Pioneer TV production company came to film Dr Rhodri Evans and myself for a new program that is to be aired on S4C. The reason behind the aforementioned people isn’t because of our, ahem, amazing talents in science communication, but it was because they wanted scientists to speak about
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Universe in the Classroom Kicks Off the Summer Term with a CPD Session

Posted on 7 May 2014 by Sarah Roberts

The first Universe in the Classroom teacher training event of the summer term took place at Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy yesterday, on Tuesday 6th May. The 4-hour session offered eight welsh primary school teachers an opportunity to re-awaken the scientist inside, as they practised a number of hands-on astronomy activities from Universe in
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Bringing Astronomy Education to Special Schools

Posted on 9 April 2014 by Sarah Roberts

A selection of eight new schools now have a set of brand new astronomy education materials courtesy of Universe in the Classroom. Eight teachers, all from separate schools across South Wales gathered for a Science PLC meeting at Ysgol Maes y Coed school earlier today, and were visited by Sarah Eve Roberts of Universe in
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Astronomy: First Sunday

Posted on 6 April 2014 by Chris North

Since the start of this year, myself and a group of fellow astronomers from around the UK have recorded “Google Hangouts” on the first Sunday of every month – you can see the latest edition below. They’re meant to be informal and require as little preparation as possible (otherwise none of us would have time, particularly
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STARS Workshop at Rumney Primary School

Posted on 6 April 2014 by Sarah Roberts

On Wednesday 2nd April, Universe in the Classroom’s Stellar Role Models (STARS) hosted their first workshop at Rumney Primary School in Cardiff. STARS are science students from Cardiff University who have been trained in communication and familiar with the Universe in the Classroom. Thei primary role in the project is to provide diverse science role
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Universe in the Classroom Training Event with South Wales Teachers

Posted on 3 April 2014 by Sarah Roberts

Cardiff School of Physics and Astronomy welcomed nine local primary school teachers last week, for the first in a series of Universe in the Classroom CPD training events to be held throughout the project. The teachers were from nine different primary schools across South Wales, which ranged geographically from local schools in Cardiff to schools
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Cambridge Science Festival and Gravitational Waves from Inflation

Posted on 1 April 2014 by Chris North

For the 31st March episode of Pythagoras’ Trousers, I reported from the Cambridge Science Festival, specifically at the Institute of Astronomy‘s open afternoon. As well as speaking to a number of the exhibitors (and vistors) at the Institute, I also spoke to a few of the cosmologists about the latest results from the BICEP2 experiment
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