It has been a busy few months for the Our Space team. We have had project deliverables to submit and review meetings to attend, all while trying to squeeze in some well-deserved holiday. But something we are always happy to do is to attend conferences and talk about the Our Space Project to all our lovely colleagues and associates!
So, we were very excited to hear the news that some of the Our Space Our Future team were going to be taking part in Global Hand’s On Universe 2021 conference (GHOU), in August earlier this year. The GHOU conference always does such a good job in bringing together teachers, students, educators, and scientists from around the world to discuss how we can improve the teaching of space-related subjects, as well as providing an opportunity for us to share resources, address current issues, and exchange knowledge. It was our pleasure to be a part of this conversation.
At this year’s GHOU conference, Our Space Our Futures’ Project Manager, Dr Rebecca Williams, and evaluations expert Dr Sophie Bartlett, both from the University of Cardiff, gave brilliant presentations. Dr Rebecca Williams’s first presentation gave the audience an introduction to the Our Space project and shared some of our key aims and objectives. This was followed by a discussion with Dr Sophie Bartlett, who shared some of the early evaluation findings, showing some of the results from surveys completed by school students from under-represented areas, to determine what preconceptions and attitudes these students had in relation to space science.
These surveys focused on the following areas;
- general interest in space science,
- perceived relevance and importance of space science,
- the accessibility of space science careers,
- their own identity in space science and
- future aspirations towards space science careers.
From these findings, Dr Bartlett was able to analyse the responses given by these students to determine if there are any differences in attitudes across a number of key demographic groups, as well as comparing these findings with those obtained from an in-depth literature review compiled by the Our Space Our Future project.
We are always happy to speak at conferences, and although many of us may feel that online conferences lack the personal touch, they open the door to a wider audience and make it easier for as many of us as possible to contribute and generate new ideas. That is why these conferences are so important; it is a fantastic opportunity for the Our Space Our Future team to share the work we are doing and to gain insight from the wider community.
“I enjoyed presenting the OurSpace project at the GHOU conference. The project has delivered great interventions to schools in the UK, Denmark, Italy and Portugal, so it was a great opportunity to share the work of the project to an even wider global audience and receive positive feedback on our goals of inspiring students to consider careers in the space industry”
Dr Rebecca Williams, Our Space Our Futures’ Project Manager
For more information about this year’s GHOU conference visit: http://handsonuniverse.org/ghou2021/
