A primary school in Northern Ireland receives a free book of science experiments, and now its teachers are being trained to use those experiments in class while their pupils get a subsidised trip to the Armagh Planetarium. The problem is twofold. Many teachers received the “Big Book of Experiments and Bright Ideas” but lacked the confidence or encouragement to use it regularly. At the same time, the cost-of-living crisis has made school trips unaffordable for many families, widening the gap between pupils who can visit the Planetarium and those who cannot. This project subsidises visits for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and provides on-site training for their teachers, showing them how to turn the book’s experiments into classroom lessons. If it succeeds, thousands of primary pupils across Northern Ireland will get hands-on science experience they would otherwise miss, and their teachers will gain lasting skills and resources. The project builds a permanent link between the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium and local schools, ensuring the book does not sit unused on a shelf but becomes a regular part of STEM teaching for years to come.
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Context Founded in 1790, the Armagh Observatory is one the oldest research institute in the British Isle with an established international reputation and a long national tradition of science communication. It was indeed the desire to be at the forefront in this domain that led to the foundation of the Planetarium in 1968 and which today, half a century on, has established Armagh's strong outreach and public engagement reputation in Northern Ireland and across the border. Following their 2016 merger, the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) is now one unique institution combining an internationally recognised centre of Astrophysics research and a state-of-the-art Planetarium facility, through which our research and education teams collaborate to deliver a comprehensive research-informed outreach and public-engagement program. During the COVID-19 pandemic AOP adapted all its outreach and education activities to an online delivery that included also a series on Science@Home tutorial videos showing how to carry out a number of scientific experiments and talking also about the science behind it. Following the enthusiasm generated by these videos, AOP successfully capitalised on such online resources by producing the "AOP’s Big Book of Experiments and Bright Ideas" thanks to STFC funding secured through a 2020A Spark Award. This book has now been distributed to all 850 primary schools in NI and sets the foundation of this Legacy Award project. Challenges Our previous evaluation indicates that teachers consider AOP's book a useful resource for teaching STEM in the classroom with several experiments already been employed in class only a few weeks from receiving the book. Feedback has however been sparse, suggesting teachers would benefit from further encouragement and training in using such a resource at their schools. At the same time, the recent cost-of-living crisis is creating a further divide between schools (and parents) that cannot afford to bring their children to our planetarium and those that can benefit from an exciting visit to our Planetarium led not only by our education staff but also by our PhD students who effectively act as inspiring STEM champions. Objectives To respond to both these issues we aim at subsidising school trips to the Planetarium for pupils from unprivileged backgrounds while also providing their teachers with on-site training on the delivery of STEM material based on AOP's book. This will ensure a targeted legacy to our previous project and the establishment of lasting relations in NI between primary school teachers and AOP.
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