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Astronomy for All

Activity: Other activity typesTypes of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition

1/04/202431/05/2024

“Astronomy for All” is a multi-school engagement programme for Y10 and Y12 students from Blackpool, Morecambe and the Fylde Coast. The project aims to use astronomy and astrophysics as a vehicle to engage young people with science, upskill students with research and presentation skills, and widen access to further and higher education. The programme is led by Mhairi Mitchison, Rachel Bashforth and Dr. Andy Blake from the Lancaster Physics Department, and is delivered in partnership with Dr Nick Lister from the Lawrence House Astronomy and Space Science Centre. The programme is funded by the FutureU north-west UniConnect hub, with matched funding from the Lancaster Physics Department. The 23/24 programme began with a Teacher CPD event (15/4/24), which was followed by in-person astronomy and skills workshops at Lawrence House for Y10 (22/04/24) and Y12 (23/04/24) pupils. The finale to this programme was a research conference at Lancaster University (21/05/24), in which the pupils presented posters showcasing key topics from modern astrophysics and planetary science. The programme was supported by a team of student ambassadors and postgraduate researchers from the Lancaster Physics Department, who delivered subject-specific talks at Lawrence House, and provided feedback on the posters at the research conference.