Welcome back!
What another busy week it has been. The feedback from our Nebula Astro Camp for 10-12 year olds is in and it’s a massive hit. We had a brilliant time and from what we are hearing so did our participants. If you’re feeling a bit left out no worries as on Monday we are beginning our Red Giant Astro Camp for ages 13-15! It will follow a similar outline as our Nebula camp but more applicable to those in Junior Cycle.
“Thank you. I’ve the most excited 11 year old here. She loved every minute. She can’t wait for tomorrow.”
– Happy Parent
“I had the best day of my life. I’m convinced I’m going to be an astrophysicist”
– Happy Participant
We cannot wait for you to see what we have in store for next week. Nathan has been making a cool new activity focused on the importance of coding skills in astrophysics. For students of this age coding is something they may not be particularly familiar with so this is an excellent introduction. It’s never too early to code!
Simulation of gravitational interaction between two binary stars.
A really important aspect we feel the Astro Camps should have is discussion and interaction and so we will be including some conversations about creativity in science and the ethics of space travel, both very interesting topics and we’re excited to hear what you think.
As well as this we have some amazing guest speakers lined up for the week including PhD researchers Aoife Maria Ryan (TCD/DIAS), Andrew Allan (TCD), Rosie Cane (University of Edinburgh), & more. What is really great about these talks is the chance for young people to have access to research scientists and ask them the big questions that they have about astrophysics.
Trust me, you’re not going to want to miss all the fun we have lined up for next week. If you’re interested you can sign up here. And if you’re aged 16-18 and intrigued by everything we’re talking about we also have ‘AstroLands Academy’, a two day event if you’re interested in space or just wanting to learn more. It will be an opportunity to meet and talk to some students and researchers and find out if astrophysics or physics is something that you might like to study at 3rd level. You can find out more information about ‘AstroLands Academy’ here.
Tune back next week to hear how the Red Giant Astro Camp went!
Blog post written by Amy Clancy
