FT at the BBC Wales Roadshow

This weekend saw members of the Faulkes Telescope Project and the National Museum of Wales up in wet-and-windy North Wales, as part of the annual BBC Wales Roadshow. For the second year running, we were asked to man a stand about the project, featuring the FT's "Down to Earth" educational programme in particular.

Despite not having quite the "scare factor" of the full-sized monsters on the Dr. Who and Torchwood displays, the range of dinosaur bits (bones, teeth and claws - and not forgetting the ever-popular dinosaur poo!) and meteorites (including specimens from the Moon and Mars) seemed to wow the almost 2,000 visitors who attended the event in Pwllhelli. The roadshow provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the project to an audience that has proven difficult to engage with in the past, and builds on the work done as part of the 60th anniversary of the landing of the Beddgelert meteorite (Sept. 21st, 1949).

A highlight of the roadshow was the performance of a musical composition about the Beddgelert meteorite created by students at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle, funded by the STFC "Back down to Earth" programme. This music project has been an unexpected spin-off of the (science) programme that was being run in the region.

"Down to Earth" is one of the educational projects run by FT that does not require access to the telescopes (although there are a number of linked projects using the FTs to observe Near Earth Objects, asteroids and comets, particularly in collaboration with the British Astronomical Association - see the FT Moodle for more details). D2E has been funded by STFC and the Royal Astronomical Society, and consists of a website (http://down2earth.eu) and an outreach programme (managed by Heather Jackson at the National Museum of Wales). Sarah Roberts manages a "Beacons for Public Engagement" project based on D2E that is working with Cardiff University's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.