In the OurSpaceOurFuture project, Planetarium , Copenhagen, Denmark, is currently doing science shows at schools together with more than 1,000 students. Two weeks ago, we visited the public school Brøndbyvester Skole in the outskirts of Copenhagen. The school is the former school of our presenter, Cecillie Knudsen, who today works at Planetarium.
Together with the OurSpaceOurFuture project team, Cecillie went back to her former primary and lower secondary school to talk about her journey from growing up in the local community to finishing her master’s degree in Astrophysics at the University of Copenhagen. As a role model for the young students in 6th grade, Cecillie showed how space-related careers can be an attainable aspiration for all students.
Excited eyes appeared in the faces of the students and many expressed “wooow” when Cecillie together with our other presenter, Camilla, said: “we are now going to make a Mars cloud made of dry ice”! While showing different experiments, Cecillie and Camilla talked about how important it is to have designers and technicians create space suits to avoid the blood in our bodies starting boiling in space. They also showed how we can investigate the underground on Mars for possible liquid water as well as the acidity of the soil on Mars.
The overall narrative behind the science show is what it takes to make a mission to Mars, what happens to our bodies when we go into space, and how many different types of specialised people we need to make a mission.
At Planetarium, we are looking forward to continuing the OurSpaceOurFuture project in the new year, when the same students will be visiting the Planetarium and learning more about space science and space-related careers while creating their own “Mission to Mars”.
