And so AfRIS draws to a close

With our final trip to Strachur Primary School on the 28th November 2019, we have sadly come to the end of the visit phase of the AfRIS project. Over the past two years we have visited 81 schools, and worked with 5236 pupils and 1053 members of the remote and island communities that we have visited. We have travelled as far north as Unst (Shetland), as far south as Jersey and as far west as the Scilly Isles. We have visited schools with just 5 pupils (Isle of Coll), and schools with nearly 600 (Isle of Bute). We have travelled by car, ferry, plane, tractor and even by foot, whilst experiencing glorious sunshine, sideways rain, white-out blizzards and Storm-Force-10 ferry crossings. However, wherever we went, we always received a warm and enthusiastic welcome from staff, pupils and parents alike. The past two years have been a real honour, and we only hope that somewhere along our path, we have imparted astronomical knowledge and engendered a genuine interest in curious minds about the Universe in which we live.