Science and Technology Facilities Council
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Exploring your Universe – new partnership to share the excitement of science, from atoms to astrophysics
The UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) are delighted to announce the launch of a new strategic partnership bringing together some of the most fascinating and diverse science in the country with the talents and infrastructure of the nation’s largest network of science engagement organisations.
The partnership will begin with a 2-year national programme which aims to inspire more young people across the UK with the wonders of the physical sciences by sharing the amazing stories and technologies of STFC.
Overall, the programme will create a series of exceptional hands-on activities, experiments, schools workshops, public shows, meet-the-expert sessions and a variety of other events, all focussing on STFC science and giving young people the confidence, curiosity, and interest to continue to explore and ask questions long after they leave the science and discovery centres. This national project will be led by ASDC in collaboration with The National Space Centre in Leicester and Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre in Cheshire.
An early stage of the project will involve discussions with a variety of people from science and discovery centres, museums, STFC facilities and the Institute of Physics to identify the hugely successful physics-based activities currently used to engage young people. This will inform the wider project and we look forward to involving many of you in this process.
The first output of this project will be public stargazing events at science and discovery centres across the UK between March and June 2012, in partnership with local astronomy experts from the STFC-supported Dark Sky Discovery Project.
STFC is a world leader in helping humans ask and explore the really big questions. In particular, questions about the physical nature of the world around us, about ourselves and our place in the Universe. This partnership will bring together the innovation, research and people of STFC with the UK’s largest network of science engagement professionals.
Professor John Womersley, CEO of STFC says “This is a huge opportunity to engage young people and families in all parts of the UK with science and to share with them the inspirational ideas and research that STFC is involved with from the smallest scale work of particle physics, through the applied research that affects our everyday lives to the most enormous scale of the Universe, in astronomy and cosmology.”
ASDC brings together more than 60 of the UK’s major science engagement organisations including all the key science and discovery centres and science museums. The ASDC membership makes up the largest network of science engagement professionals in the UK who together engage over 20 million people each year with the wonders of science. Between them, these centres work with 385,000 members of the public every week of the year, in all parts of the UK, helping people to explore and delve into science in a hands-on, involving and personal way.
Dr Penny Fidler, the Project Director and CEO of ASDC said “We are delighted with this exciting partnership and the inspirational activities and programmes that will be created as part of it. If we truly want our nation’s young people to be inspired and motivated by science and consider it as a career for their future, we need to give them astounding and creative hands-on opportunities like these so they can see how enjoyable and enlivening the questions of real science are.
Additional Information:
1. The UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) ASDC is an educational charity bringing together 60 of the UK’s major science engagement organisations. Each year their members engage over 20 million people (385,000 people each week) with the wonders of science including working with around 7 million school-age students every year.
2. ASDC’s vision is for a society where people are ‘intrigued, inspired and involved with the sciences’. Our mission is ‘to bring together the ASDC membership to play a strategic role in the Nation’s engagement with science’. A map of all the UK centres is at www.sciencecentres.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @ScienceCentres.
3. STFC also has an extensive public outreach and engagement programme. It is using its world leading research to inspire and enthuse schools and the general public about the impact and benefits that science can have on society.
Follow us on Twitter @STFC_Matters
www.stfc.ac.uk
4. For information about Dark Sky Discovery (link opens in a new window)
5. For the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee report (link opens in a new window)on the urgent need for more practical science for school students (14 September 2011)
Contacts
For information on this exciting National Project, please contact:
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Dr Penny Fidler
The ASDC CEO and Project Director
07791 554 029 -
Dr Michaela Livingstone
The ASDC Project Manager
0117 915 0184
