This project is intended to build as International Heliophysical Year 2007/08 progresses. It is a programme of:
Designed to both celebrate IHY 2007 and generate interest in our local star, the Sun, from both school children and the general public.
The aim of this website is to concentrate upon the educational focus of the programme, drawing participating schools together to a central on-line resource of information and expertise.
The main theme behind the schools strand of this programme is to understand key principles in experimental scientific method. Using a home made magnetometer it is possible to detect an invisible force in action (that of the magnetic field of the Sun affecting that of the Earth) in the classroom. It is then possible to explore the cause of this by observing the Sun safely using a Solar Scope (free to the first 20 schools to register) or the NASA Sun-Earth viewer to see Sun Spots (evidence of magnetic storms on the surface of the Sun). The effect of this upon the Earth can then be discovered by attempting to see Aurora (Northern Lights) in the atmosphere of the Earth. Details of the equipment used in this process & other resources useful in studying the Sun can be found under the Resources Menu above.
It is up to individual teachers how much detail they go into with children. The devices can be used as a classroom resource or perhaps classroom time could be used to replicate them for use in homework. This scientific methodology can then be followed up with some course work or a scheme of work that a teacher considers appropriate for the level of the children involved, from KS2 to KS5, suggestions as to which area of the curriculum this may be applied can be found under the Curriculum Menu above and some example worksheets can be found under the Resources Menu. Typical schemes of work may run from some simple art work or digital photography (using the solar scope) for KS2, through to an examination of the effect of the Sun and it’s UV rays for KS3&4 and some mathematical modelling of Sun Spots and the Solar Cycle for GCSE Astronomy & KS5.
Schemes of work are not prescriptive, it is left entirely up to an individual teacher, but it is requested that all schools registering submit some work to be shared by all contributing schools on this website and on the Stockton CLC’s Virtual Learning Environment. The schools strand will involve the following, for which a travel bursary of £50 will be available to the first 20 schools to register in order to attend one or more of the events for students below:
The following isa list of events open to the public. Keep an eye out here for the announcement of future Solar Observing events organised at short notice when the weather looks fine:
IHY2007/08
The following extract from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) press release explains what IHY is all about ...
International Heliophysical Year (IHY) is a multinational coordination effort both to raise awareness of the relationship between the Sun and the Earth and also to drive a programme of collaborative scientific research in this important field. The UK was one of the founding countries of IHY, and the science programme is being coordinated from the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK.
To mark the launch of International Heliophysical Year, scientists have released the first dramatic images of a Coronal Mass Ejection taken with the UK-built HI cameras on the STEREO mission. Prof. Richard Harrison of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Principal Investigator for the HI cameras and one of the original proposers of IHY said: "It is wonderful for the UK that we are able to deliver these first dramatic pictures right at the start of IHY".
Dr Lucie Green of UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory is outreach co-ordinator for IHY in the UK. She explains "Many people imagine the Sun to be a docile disc in the sky. In reality it is a seething fireball of high-energy explosions. Sometimes these explosions throw off huge clouds of debris, known as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). These can be ejected in any direction, but some come directly towards the Earth, posing a threat to astronauts, satellites and even ground-based electricity distribution systems. The more we understand about the way the Sun relates to its environment, the better we can protect humanity from this ’space weather’."
