News, events and schools' information for families across Bath and West Wiltshire

Pupils from St Patrick’s Catholic School in Corsham recently received a Discovery Astronomy Loan Box from Bath Astronomers, providing the children with a plethora of practical space and astronomy related pre-made lessons and activities across a wide age range.

The Loan Box arrived one damp Friday, with the ‘May contain black holes’ signs on the side instantly demanding the attention of Year 5 pupils, before going under the guidance of Key Stage 2 Leader, Ms Rosie Wilkinson.

The volunteer outreach team at Bath Astronomers have been visiting schools across West Wiltshire and Bath for many years now to provide after-school stargazing and stellar activities. “These sessions are highly rewarding, and the impact is very tangible in school afterwards but, as a volunteer, you wish you could do more to enthuse and engage pupils in STEAM during the day,” said Simon Holbeche from Bath Astronomers.

“That wish has now delivered in the shape of a new Discover Astronomy Loan Box devised by Camilla Evans, STEM Lead Educator at Wishford Schools and provided by Bath Astronomers. The idea is to deliver the resources for busy teachers to supercharge already exciting school space weeks.”

Simon explained that the bottom of the box houses a fully functional computerised telescope and practice targets to get used to pointing the telescope in schooltime if the Moon is not out. The middle, meanwhile, is home to binoculars for pupils to find out how they work and learn to use.

The uppermost layer of the Loan Box is then packed with kits for making planispheres, spectroscopes, a gravity well and a tellurium – a model of the Sun, Moon and Earth and can be used in class to demonstrate how the Moon orbits the Earth, the phases of the Moon, the seasons of the year and how eclipses occur.

The Gravity Well, meanwhile, comprises a ring with a lycra membrane stretched across it and is used to demonstrate how planets, asteroids and comets orbit the Sun or even the orbit that Artemis spacecraft will take to visit the Moon from 2025.

“The resources are fantastic,” said Ms Wilkinson at St Patrick’s, adding, “They met the needs of all the learners, and are so engaging and fun!

“The loan box helped bridge the attainment range. The more able pupils were challenged, all children were more engaged and really taken by the physical resources as they could feel and see how the solar system worked.”

“I had no clue the Moon orbited the way that it did, and the tellurium helped me see it better,” said one Year 5 pupil, adding that the box “was amazing because without it we would never have had the experience we had, and I never thought this way about science.”

The Discover Astronomy Loan Box is available to schools within 20kms of Bath. It is delivered without charge for a period of several weeks by simply visiting https://stem.bathastronomers.org.uk/discovery-loan-box/ and making a booking.

bathastronomers.org.uk