Dr Vicky Fawcett, Research Associate – Astrophysics
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics
Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering
What did you do?
Developed and designed a 5-month astronomy exhibition hosted by the Great North Museum: Hancock from the 30th March to the 1st September 2024. The exhibition focused on the historical and current contributions of the North East to world-wide astronomy, with a focus on hands-on interactives. The aim of the exhibition was to get more children interested in STEM, with a focus on those from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Who is involved?
Undergraduates, postgraduates, staff, and technicians at Newcastle, Durham, and Northumbria universities.
Additionally, local astronomical societies, independent volunteers, and local schools.
How did you do it?
The project was largely funded through an STFC Spark award, with additional funding from the Great North Museum: Hancock and MSP at Newcastle University. The project started with three local focus group schools, where Newcastle University astronomers (undergraduates, postgraduates, postdocs, and staff) ran workshops testing prototype interactives, understanding what the students liked and disliked about museums, and got them to help design the exhibition.
To cover the historical side we funded an applied mathematics PhD student at Newcastle University to research the history of astronomy in the North East and locating relevant artefacts that could be used in the exhibition. Two undergraduate summer students also helped design interactives, help at school workshops, and bring ideas of how to shape the exhibition.
The exhibition space
Artefacts for the exhibition were donated by the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Durham University, local astronomers, and Newcastle University. The interactives were made by PhD students at Durham and Newcastle universities, MSP technicians, Northumbria University, and a local company. Interviews of modern astronomers were led by a PhD student at Newcastle University, interviewing students and staff from Newcastle, Durham, and Northumbria universities. The Space Investigators website was created and maintained by a PhD student at Newcastle University.
One of the display items, a Lego model of the Extremely Large Telescope, was built by a team of PhD students at Newcastle University – it now is displayed by the MSP office.
Vicky and her MSP colleagues with a Lego module of the Extremely Large Telescope
Why did you do it?
The project was designed to raise awareness of the current and historical contributions the North East of England to international astronomy research and telescope engineering. Through this we also aimed to inspire young people in the region (primarily ages 7-14), their families and the wider local community to engage more with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). By telling the stories of local people, local companies and the research institutes situated in the North East, we aim to make the astronomy science and telescope engineering more relatable and to instil a sense of pride in the STEM successes of the region.
Visitors interacting with the exhibition
The focus group schools were situated in areas with high levels of deprivation, which are also known to be associated with particularly low levels of science capital.
We also aimed to make museum exhibitions more accessible to the blind and vision impaired community, by running consultations with a local charity group (VIEWS) and including tactile mats, QR codes, a website for screen readers, large print text, and tactile interactives.
Does it work?
We currently have an undergraduate summer student who is working on writing a full evaluation report for the exhibition.
Preliminary evaluation:
Overall 51,127 people visited the exhibition over the 5-months, which is a 43% conversion rate from overall museum visitors, which is close to the conversion rate for the museum’s most popular ever exhibition, Dippy the Dinosaur (48% conversion rate).
From 283 evaluation cards filled out by exhibition visitors, we found 49% of visitors said they were more interested in science after visiting the exhibition and 81% answered either ‘more’ or ‘the same’. 60% answered ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know’ to the question ‘Does somebody in my family use science in their job or in a hobby?’ demonstrating that we are reaching people who are not already exposed to science due to family.
Of those that answered the evaluation cards, 92% were aged less than 14 which was our target audience. We also had hundreds more cards that were not filled in, but the other side asking to ‘draw something that you have learnt today’ was used: the top 5 objects drawn were stars, telescopes, rockets, the Earth, and the Moon.
A young exhibition visitor interacting with one of the exhibits
The MP for Newcastle Central (Chi Onwurah) attended the exhibition launch event and mentioned the exhibition in in Parliament.
We had a blind and vision impaired (BVI) School group and adult charity group (VIEWS) come to evaluate the exhibition, but are still in the process of writing this up.
The Graduate Framework
This project demonstrate the following attributes:
- Socially responsible
- Future focused
- Creative, Innovative and Enterprising
- Curious
- Collaborative
- Engaged