The ‘I Choose’ initiative is a programme of the Ministry for Education and Employment aimed for secondary school Form 4 & 5 students. It strives to provide them with an opportunity to explore career options. I had the opportunity to meet some aspiring scientists and talk to them about careers in science, and was joined by two of our past students, Deandra Cutajar and Byron Magri, who spoke about why…
Tag Archives: public engagement
Each May a group of students visit the islands from the U.S. to study environmental issues, working with various local NGOs over a period of around four weeks. Last night, Josef Borg (one of our PhD students) and I headed off to Dwejra to host an astronomy night for them, and viewed a large number of objects through a telescope, including the planet Saturn (marked in the picture). It was…
Citadels are associated with cannons. And for the ‘Science in the Citadel’ festival, we did set up cannons of a certain kind atop the Gozo Citadel: telescopes to show the general public some of the wonders of the night sky. I would like to thank three of our students, Josef Borg, Karl Fiteni and Andrew Finch, who were as keen as ever to give a helping hand with this event, which was…
On the 27th of January I was invited to give the annual lecture of the Sir M.A. Refalo Sixth form. The talk carried the title: ‘Tracing our Origins: The Story of looking up at the Night Sky’. It was a very nice occasion on which I had the opportunity to engage with the general public and catch up with members of the school. I thank the council alumni society of the…
Last night we held an astronomy night at Dwejra tower. Dwejra is a Dark Sky Heritage Area (DSHA) in Gozo. Over 200 people had the opportunity to look through a variety of telescopes to observe various objects, including the three planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Many had their first ever look at these planets, and were left in awe at the austere beauty of the night sky. A more in-depth…
Cafe Scientifique organise some fantastic events for the general public. This Christmas (well, close enough to it anyway), I was invited to tell a cosmic story, which I very glady accepted. Thanks to Cafe Sci and Spazju Kreattiv for organising, and for their fantastic work throughout the year.
Below follow details of an upcoming talk I will be giving for the general public organised by the Astronomical Society of Malta. The concept of time travel is a staple of many science fiction stories. However, we do indeed have the ability to look back in time whenever we turn our glance towards the skies. Distances to stars and galaxies are so vast that light takes thousands, millions and billions…
Another of the ‘Lab, Camera, Action‘ Video Series discussing physics concepts and work done at the University of Oxford is online. This one focusses on particle accelerators. We visited the ISIS particle accelerator in Oxfordshire and talked to accelerator physicist Dr Suzie Sheehy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFNhuQPVwXk
In a few days we’ll be discussing the most distant galaxies observed in our universe. Details in the poster below.