Outreach
The School is committed to promoting physics and astronomy in the local and wider community. We work with local schools, education advisers, science festivals, the Institute of Physics, etc to stage events tailored to particular organisation's or individual's needs. The School and/or individual staff members have received funding from the a number of bodies to assist in this work, including the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scottish Enterprise, COPUS (Committee for the public understanding of Science), the Millennium Commission, and the Institute of Physics.
Astronomy
Road-show
Astronomy
staff and students take out our inflatable planetarium
and other exhibits to local schools and other public groups.
We estimate that in its first three years of operation
some 10,000 people had crawled into the dome to see the
virtual universe sparkle around them. The roadshow
maintains its own web
site, which contains contact information for the organisers..
The
University Observatory
We are fortunate to have some splendid observational and computational facilities in St Andrews, which are used by our research teams and in our teaching. The University Observatory is not normally open to the public, but there are particular occasions when we can invite people to take a look at some of the telescopes in their domes, and peer out into the Universe. Such events are obviously dependent on the sky being clear. The observatory is often opened as part of the St Andrews Week celebrations, and occasionally as part of Science Week. We may also be able to organise daytime visits for groups from secondary schools.
Seeing
Life through a New Light
“Seeing Life through a New Light” is a science engagement programme based on the applications of light in medicine and biology. Themes include imaging techniques for new studies of cells and tissue, new optical techniques for healthcare treatment and optical trapping and micromanipulation. Interactive shows and workshops were delivered across Fife, Scotland and the UK in schools, at science festivals and public presentations to show how light is changing our life. This EPSRC-funded grant, held by Prof Kishan Dholakia, built on the success of a previous Public Understanding award “Tripping the Light Fantastic”, developed in conjunction with Fifex. For more information please visit the website
Seeing Life Through a New Light Website
Millimetre
Waves - Vision for the Future
Research Council funding has allowed us to build up a touring exhibition with a variety of hands-on activities looking at how the infra-red and mm-wave part of the electromagetic spectrum can be useful to us. The picture shows visitors at a science fair viewing their pictures taken by an infra-red camera, which shows temperature variations as part of the imaging process.
Tayside Universities and Schools Liaison in Physics, Institute of Physics- Day of Physics
At the initial request of local school teachers, and under the auspices of the Tayside Universities and Schools Liaison in Physics group and the Institute of Physics in Scotland, we run every autumn a day of activities for pupils in Fife and the former Tayside who are studying physics in sixth year. This event is sponsored by the Institute of Physics in Scotlan, is run in collaboration with the Univeristy of Dundee, and is organised through school teachers in the area. Pupils are able to sample aspects of physics teaching at university, engage with material of relevance to careers in physics, and exchange ideas and experiences with each other and with current students. This event is specifically designed to promote physics, and not our departments in particular. In recent years we have been pleased to have a hundred or more pupils join us for this event. Further details. Please contact Dr Bruce Sinclair for more information.
Science
Festivals and Shows
Various staff have been pleased to accept invitations to present material at events such as the British Association Festival of Science, the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, the Edinburgh Science Festival, and the Tomorrow's World RoadShow. Our work has also appeared on national TV and radio. We have worked with other bodies to provide speakers and materials for school, professional, and public groups.
We
also run events for some Science Weeks. Our Outreach coordinator
is Dr
Paul Cruickshank.
Merchiston
Prestige Lectures for Edinburgh Schools
We
are pleased to be working with Merchiston
Castle School in Edinburgh to put on interesting and
accessible presentations for state and private schools
in the Edinburgh area. Recent presentations
given by our staff but organised and hosted by Merchiston
Castle School have included "The physics
of the Internet", "Our universe through
the eye of the Hubble space telescope", and
"Light and lasers".
Institute
of Physics Lectures
Most years we host a visit by a speaker sponsored by the Institute of Physics to give lecture demonstrations on some aspect of physics that has been designed to be taken on tour for school pupils.
The 2011 lecture is to be given by Dr Michael Wilson on "From X-rays to antimatter: the science of seeing inside your body" on 7 Septembar.
Recent lectures have included "Rock in 11 Dimensions - where physics and guitars collide", "Science of Colour", "Engineering the Olympics"
Please contact Dr Graham Turnbull for more information.
Visits
to Schools
We are pleased to work with schools to provide activities of interest to them. By mutual arrangement staff from our School can visit schools with a particular set of activities. In session 2002-3 we were able to provide a number of presentations on Light, Lasers, and Communications, sponsored by Scottish Enterprise. We have worked with primary schools to provide hands-on activities and/or demonstrations in the areas of forces, colour, electricity, and magnetism, in addition to the astronomy road-show mentioned above. Please contact individual members of staff or Dr Paul Cruikshank for more information.
Visits by Schools
While we host some visits by school groups wishing to see what St Andrews is like to enable them to weigh up their choices of future university study, we also host visits for activities requested by local teachers. These include both primary and secondary school groups. One such arrangement is in place with a Kirkcaldy state School, which brings forty S2 pupils pupils to specially designed sessions in both physics and chemistry. One such group's activities includes them exploring aspects of physics in our teaching labs as well as viewing some of our research. Please contact Dr Bruce Sinclair for more information.
RSE
Science Masterclasses
We
host sessions for the "Masterclasses" sponsored
by the Royal Society
of Edinburgh for S1 and S2 pupils. Pupils from across
Fife come to the University for a set of four classes.
In recent years this School has provided two of the four,
one in astronomy "Ships, stars, and planets",
and one in physics "Bagpipes and electrons".
Further details on these are available from the Royal
Society of Edinburgh.
Special
Events
We
occasionally run special events to promote physics and
astronomy. One such event was our "Celebration
of Physics", which we run in 2002 in conjunction
with the Institute
of Physics in Scotland. World renowned speakers
in physics and astronomy from around the UK and from our
own School gave short presentations on topics such as
"The seven wonders of physics" (Prof
Sir Michael Berry FRS), "Physics through stories"
(Prof Russell Stannard OBE), and "Planets beyond
the solar system", (Prof Keith Horne).
Recruitment-focussed Events
As well as the above activities, which are designed to promote and/or explain physics and astronomy to a sometimes wide audience, we are involved in various activities designed to allow potential students to learn more about studying in our School. These include hosting visits to the School at various times during the year.
We also participate in the University's arrangements of the "Sutton Trust Summer School". This allows a particular subset of senior state-school pupils to experience a week at our University funded by the Sutton Trust. While this event is designed to show the accessibility of higher education in general to these pupils, we are delighted to be seeing some of these pupils applying for and getting a place to study in St Andrews.
Last updated 8.11, BDS
