Description:
Our trip to the Isle of Skye kicked off with a visit to Dunvegan Primary School on the west coast of the island, where we were also joined by 7 pupils from the nearby Edinbane Primary school. In total, 50 pupils were split between 4 class groups, although some of them came together for some of the activities. It was a packed programme that started with the Earth, Sun and Moon module being run for the P1 to P3 class. This covered topics such as day & night, seasons and lunar phases. We then looked at the Solar System in more detail with the P3 to P4 group, who seemed to cope well with the play-doh planets activity. After break, we raised the complexity a little with the P4-7 group, by investigating gravity in more depth, and also looking at the nature of light, and discussing why it is so important for astronomers to study types of light that our eyes cannot see.

After lunch we looked at robotic telescopes with the P6 to P7 group and had them conducting a few scientific measurements on real data from our own telescope in the Canary Islands. We ended the day with our Space Exploration talk to both schools, and showed some of the exciting missions that are currently tasking place or planned for the near future.