Our Tiny World and Rocketude!
I have been travelling about presenting at various events, clubs, schools and WI meetings - why?
Children are spending more time with grandparents these days, so I'm taking the opportunity to talk to adults and children about the fantastic subject of space, to try to stimulate science conversations in the home.
So "Our Tiny World" is a solar system tour, designed to inspire mums, grandmums, dads and grandads to talk with their kids about space and science, and hopefully make STEM subjects more accessible to young people. Research has shown that engagement with STEM subjects at home is a significant factor in children who go on to choose STEM careers.
The talk is based around some amazing images and videos from NASA and is always a delight to present.
It's also hugely popular with children of all ages and, along with the Rocketude! make-and-launch activity, I've had the joy of presenting this at many schools and, of course, at the fabulous Latitude Festival Kids Area.
The story so far:
Children are spending more time with grandparents these days, so I'm taking the opportunity to talk to adults and children about the fantastic subject of space, to try to stimulate science conversations in the home.
So "Our Tiny World" is a solar system tour, designed to inspire mums, grandmums, dads and grandads to talk with their kids about space and science, and hopefully make STEM subjects more accessible to young people. Research has shown that engagement with STEM subjects at home is a significant factor in children who go on to choose STEM careers.
The talk is based around some amazing images and videos from NASA and is always a delight to present.
It's also hugely popular with children of all ages and, along with the Rocketude! make-and-launch activity, I've had the joy of presenting this at many schools and, of course, at the fabulous Latitude Festival Kids Area.
The story so far:
- 7th Dec 2010 - St Edmunds Primary, Bury
- 8th Feb 2011 - Horringer Beavers
- 19th-21st Jul 2013 - Latitude Festival
- 18th-20th Jul 2014 - Latitude Festival
- 8th Jan 2015 - Chevington WI
- 17th-20th Jul 2015 - Latitude Festival
- 15th Jan 2015 - National Space Centre, Leicester
- 2nd Mar 2016 - Elmswell WI
- 15th-17th Jul 2016 - Latitude Festival
- 4th Oct 2016 - St Benedicts School
- 3rd Nov 2016 - Cockfield WI
- 6th Feb 2017 - Norton WI
- 8th Feb 2017 - Walsham le Willows WI
- 10th Aug 2017 - Risby WI
- 9th Jan 2018 - Woolpit WI
- 2nd May 2018 - St Benedicts School
- 12th -15th July 2018 - Latitude Festival
- 11th Oct 2018 - Pakenham WI
- 23rd Mar 2019 - Trinity Church, Bury
- 23rd April 2019 - Barrow Wives
- 9th October 2019 - Glemsford WI
- 15th Nov 2019 - Sexton's Manor Primary
- 6th Jan 2020 - Uni of the 3rd Age
- 31st Jan 2020 - St Benedict's School
- 10th February 2020 - Walsham le Willows Primary
- 3rd Sept 2021 - Trinity Primary Stowmarket
And more to come...!
At the end of the talk, I often read out an excerpt from "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan. Check it out here.
Rocketude! at Latitude
Large numbers of young people enjoy the Rocketude! experience in the Kids Area at Latitude every year.
The team of Derek Langley, Ellie Langley, Ed Langley and Josh Smith work flat out to help hundreds of children to build and launch their own paper-engineering creations high into the summer sky over the long weekend July.
Night-time stargazing sessions are also very well attended, with grown-ups being blown away by their first sight of Saturn and Jupiter through a telescope.
Latitude 2015 article
The team of Derek Langley, Ellie Langley, Ed Langley and Josh Smith work flat out to help hundreds of children to build and launch their own paper-engineering creations high into the summer sky over the long weekend July.
Night-time stargazing sessions are also very well attended, with grown-ups being blown away by their first sight of Saturn and Jupiter through a telescope.
Latitude 2015 article
Telescope project
This 1960s Newtonian telescope was in a pretty sorry state when I acquired it; a generous gift from a gentleman who was unable to use it anymore. Check out my thread on the excellent Stargazers Lounge forum for the full story.
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