UKSEDS organised space outreach for the North West Astronomy Festival, UK Space Environments Conference, Leicester and the Mission X Blast Off Event. These events gave us the opportunities to inspire students to learn about astronomy, space exploration and the wonders of our universe. As a part of UKSEDS’ outreach programme, our stand for these events consisted of space activities such as identifying meteorites from Earth rocks, a display and a description of our model rocket, a space game called Space Invaders (played using the keyboard interface created by SpaceGAMBIT) and finally, a high altitude balloon display.
These events helped us to reach thousands of people. Our UKSEDS members also received some amazing volunteering opportunities. The following is the list of the volunteers who helped us with the outreach events:
- The North West Astronomy Festival, (26th-27th October 2013): Volunteers from the Manchester AstroSoc branch- Michael Wigram, Joophin Ooi, Ivan Fernan , Ryan Woods, along with committee members Samiksha Mestry and Jeremy Nickless manned the UKSEDS stand. Our volunteers did a fantastic job and entertained the young kids with amazing space stories and explained the activities very well. UKSEDS has been invited to participate for the festival in 2014 by the organisers Sue and Andrew Davies of the Knowledge Observatory.
- The UK Space Environments Conference, the National Space Centre, Leicester (9th- 10th November): Volunteers from the Leicester AstRoSoc branch: Angaraj Duara, Kiefer Paterson, David Saunders and Chris Moore did a very good job volunteering. Over 80 people visited the stand. The volunteers also got an opportunity to listen to an astronaut speech. Our stand attracted a lot of school students keen to learn about the meteorites and play the space game. For more highlights, check out the outreach photos taken by our volunteers.
- Volunteering at the Mission X Blast Off Event, Salford City Stadium: Organised by Heather McRae of Venture Thinking (31st 2014): Major Tim Peake’s Misson X: Training like an Astronaut Blast Off Event. UKSEDS provided skilled volunteers to help out at this event. We also got a chance to showcase our space activities. Salford University Science Team carried out their innovative physics activities. The school kids found the activities fascinating and asked us interesting science questions. The event was supervised by committee members, Jeremy Nickless and Samiksha Mestry with volunteers: Nick Valentine, Helen Christie, Emily McCoy, Chris Bostock, Alex Marshall and Jack Scott-Reeve. Heather McRae quotes “Thank you so much for your help on the day and for your social media expertise. It was wonderful to have your expertise on board and delighted that you are interested in continuing to volunteer for Mission X events”.
We would like to thank the event organisers for giving us such great opportunities. A warm thank you to our volunteers for making every outreach a success. Without their skills, commitment and enthusiasm, outreach would not have been as successful.
There are lots of outreach events with new space activities planned for 2014.
Find out about the March outreach events! If you would like to volunteer with us, then drop an email to our Outreach Officer.
For more articles and news about UKSEDS Outreach, watch this space!
Yours Sincerely,
Samiksha Mestry
UKSEDS Outreach Officer
No comments yet.