Starlearner on Countryfile

Great to see Ian Glendinning on Countryfile Northumberland last night.  Ian gained his GCSE Astronomy with Starlearner in 2013, passing with a high grade!  His photography is outstanding and it was wonderful to see him showing Ellie Harrison the wonders of the night sky near home in Northumberland.

  

Ian has a real talent for astrophotography and the picture above is one he has taken of the Milky Way.  His original photograph is much sharper than the image displayed here.

Royal Astronomical Society at 200 years old

In 2020, the Royal Astronomical Society will be 200 years old.  Ideas to receive awards of up to £100,000 for the promotion of Astronomy and Geophysics are being gathered at meetings like the one held in Winchester on Wednesday at the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium.

It was great to hear the ideas and experience the enthusiasm from scientists from the area. Town Hall meetings are being held all over the UK to find the best projects - most to run in the UK, but some overseas as well. 

Local or national organisations are in the running for the awards.  The RAS fund itself will support up to 20 projects with sums between £50,000 and £100,000.  The grants will be released in two calls – the first in 2015, the second in 2016, to initiate projects that run up to and beyond the RAS bicentenary.  Dr Sheila Kanani, the Education, Outreach and Diversity Officer at the RAS is the organiser of all the meetings that will lead to the best ideas being chosen to compete for the awards.  If you have a good idea, get in touch with Sheila at https://www.ras.org.uk/200.

RAS 200: Sky & Earth

Timetable for RAS200 grants

Deadline for Outline Proposal

Applications open on the 1^st December 2014.
Deadline for outline proposal is on the 2^nd February 2015.

First meeting of Grants Panel

This will be on the 16^th February 2015.
Maximum 12 proposals will be chosen.
These people will be notified by the 2^nd March 2015.

Deadline for Full Proposal

Deadline for full proposal is on the 10^th April 2015.

Second meeting of Grants Panel

Grants panel will meet to pick the maximum 6 finalists (first tranche) on the 24^th April 2015.
The ‘winners’ will be presented at the RAS AGM on the 8^th May 2015.

ONE MILLION PAGES

Saturday 13th September 2014 was a red letter day for Star Learner.

Xende, Maeloc and Caleac Rivero Bowers (3 of our Star Learners in Spain) were online and loaded up page number ONE MILLION since we opened our website.  We are thrilled with the way our website is being used all around the world.  Only this month a leading school in Switzerland joined the many schools who are using www.starlearner.com - helping their students learn more about Astronomy and Astrophysics.  Come and join us! 

Shown below is a page from our website showing how clearly details are explained:-

Demonstrate an understanding that a star’s colour is related to its temperature 

That's what I call "A pile of marking"!

This was the pile of controlled assessments that I moderated for the GCSE Astronomy this year!  Took a while to get through - but there were many terrific pieces of work.

New e-textbook completed and online

The OCR P7 Further Physics - Studying the Universe has been completed to match the current specification.  We love the look of our latest work and already schools have been in touch to use the new resource with their students.  There are superb images from our visits to Astronomy centres around the globe.  Simulations to help explain the Physics concepts are included.  The nuclear reactions of stars are clearly presented in balanced equations matched by straightforward diagrams.  Every aspect of the course is covered and as always, Starlearner has matched our work with the exam board specification.  We are starting to renew our other OCR courses to match the current specifications and once complete we will be sending our work to OCR for their endorsement. 

Telescopes are massive - compare the size to the people.  The Subaru 8.3 metre telescope is seen with the incredible dome of the  Keck 1 10 metre telescope towering above.

(Part of our new Section 5.2 describing major astronomical observatories)

A STAR LEARNER IS IN FOR A BIG SURPRISE!

One of our successful GCSE Astronomy students from last summer is in for a big surprise.  She is to receive a Royal Astronomical Society award for being one of the top 12 students in the country.  We are delighted for her - all will be revealed once the surprise has been sprung!

Starlearner is proud to say that this is the fourth time an award of this nature has been made to our students.  This is a great honour.

The eclipse seen from the Ghana Planetarium

With Starlearner being global these days, we had a brilliant email from Sarah, one of our distance learners in Accra, Ghana.  Sarah is very involved at the Ghana Planetarium in Accra which was in a great location to view the eclipse at the weekend.  This is what Sarah said:-

The eclipse was fab!!  We had a very successful event at the Planetarium, lots of people, lots of media coverage and perfect weather.  The only downside was that I was so busy organising that I didn't get a chance to take any photos!!  So unfortunately I won't be able to do the eclipse for my practical work. 

You are excused Sarah!  Let the photos that her friends took tell the story.

Thank you to Stephen Adam, Steve Wilson and Jane Ashong (a director of the Planetarium) for the brilliant photos.  Another part of Sarah's email:- 

Steve Wilson was the one who brought that group of local kids from the community where his business is based (I think) - he said most of them have never even been out of their part of the city, so it was a huge adventure for them.  The driver got lost on the way but that turned out to be an added bonus because the kids got to see more of Accra!