MD40

What a lovely girl Gwen was, bright, pretty, outgoing, popular with teachers and class mates alike. School work came easily to her. She was particularly good at languages. Everybody assumed she would go to university and follow some professional career, like most of the other bright kids in her well-off part of town. But she and a boy called Daniel had caught each others' eyes and this secure, sunny future evaporated when she got pregnant at 16. Only when little Jessica reached the age of 10 did Gwen's thoughts turn again to education. Daniel - still with her - was supportive, but was there any way for her to recover what had slipped away?

Kyle was always a laid-back kind of guy, easy going, never had to work at enjoying life. He was bright but nothing in school outside football held his interest. He had little thought of further or higher education and drifted into a job as a salesman. Despite himself he was a success, earning good money, smiled at by managers but he was watching his mates from school progress through university to become the sort of people who told him what to do. He began to feel both that he'd missed out on something, and maybe also that he had more to offer the world than an easy manner and the gift of the gab. But how to step sideways from a well-defined, if limited career path?

Later in life Tommy told people, "my school was like a battleground. Nobody should have been allowed to go to that school." He escaped as soon as he could and started as an apprentice in an engineering works. Promotion to Supervisor took only a few years and he moved to a nicer part of town with the wife and kids he'd acquired in the meantime. He enjoyed learning from the graduate engineers he worked beside but he also began to realise they weren't any brighter than him. One even seemed pretty dim, despite the letters after his name. Sadly the goodwill of your immediate bosses is no protection from the winds of globalisation and Tommy found himself out of a steady job before his 30th birthday. Although his skills and his contacts kept him in short-term contract work he began to wonder if this was the moment to go back to education. But how to get there?

These aren't real people but their stories are like those I meet on our part-time, mature student Access programme. I could have invented lots more: people whose schooling was disrupted by family break-up, women chased by teachers into Arts degrees even although they loved science, people who suffered from depression in late teens... I imagine most of us would agree there should be ways back into education for such folk, both so that they can grow and develop as people and so that the economy can benefit from the full employment of their abilities. Adult routes to university do exist: university Access programmes like ours; the Scottish Wider Access Programme Access courses and many other possibilities in the Further Education Colleges; the Open University. But current "widening participation" policy in Scotland focuses almost entirely on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), and specifically on measures to encourage participation from the bottom 40% of postcodes as classified in the SIMD; so-called MD40. Are our institutions rewarded for helping Gwen? Only if she now lives in a MD40 postcode area. If she does, the fact that she went to a good school would be irrelevant. Tommy? He shouldn't have moved to a better part of town. Kyle? Depends where he lives.

Obviously our Access course still operates and we could be useful to all of these people. Some of the other possibilities might also work for them. The Part-Time Fee Grant is a great help to Scottish adults coming back to study and eligibility depends on income, not where they happen to live. But the lack of recognition in policy of the complexities of adult lives, and in particular the simple fact that adults don't have to stay where they were born, casts a shadow over this kind of work. If times get really tough, institutions will focus exclusively on the activities they're rewarded for. Of course we should start with identifiable, disadvantaged communities, but we need to think more broadly than MD40 if our answer to Gwen is not to become, "you went to a good school. You had your chance. Should have kept your knickers on."

Open Studies;Pluto

No blogging for a while. Sorry, eager readers. Had other things to think about, part of the ongoing "DACE Memorial" story. Not much science adult education from now, with the honourable exception of the mature student Access programme.

So to shift the mood let me just mention how amazing I find the images from Pluto: a more geologically active world than expected. Why? My guess is something to do with the tidal interaction between Pluto and Charon. And why on earth (or "on Pluto") does it have huge mountains? Great stories to come, I'm sure.

Reminds me a wee bit of the many "first images from..." stories from the Voyager spacecraft, how many surprises there were, particularly among the moons of the outer planets. Every time we go somewhere new there are surprises - new questions to answer! The Pluto images are all over the media. You don't need to see them again here. Instead let me share this image of Saturn's moon Hyperion, taken by the NASA Cassini mission in 2005, surely one of the weirdest looking bodies of the solar system. A tiny world, roughly 300 km across, its spongy appearance is still unexplained.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Gordan Ugarkovic

Access Maths

I enjoy David Colquhoun's blog. As someone who often thinks too long before speaking up, I enjoy forthright people and I often - not quite always - agree with what he has to say. I started to look at his book, Lectures on Biostatistics; statistical ideas and methods, much of which I'm at least aware of, but deployed in different contexts for quite different purposes so I was curious to see how he'd present and discuss them. Even if there was nothing else useful in it, this book would be interesting for its discussion of the experimental estimation of Purity in Heart index.

Almost immediately I came across these words: "...most of us find arithmetic easier than thinking." This is so true! I'm going to stick these words under the noses of my Access Maths students. Mostly Access Maths is about mastering standard techniques: how to find the solutions of a quadratic equation, how to find unknown sides or angles in arbitrary triangles, how to calculate the area lying under the graph of a curve (well, not any curve, those defined by functions we've learned how to integrate). These are not "arithmetic" but the same point applies: one can learn how to carry out these exercises without really understanding the ideas behind them; without really thinking. In fact they can be systematised so completely that there is software to carry them out (try Wolfram Alpha for instance).

There is an irresistible pull of gravity towards the calculations you can do without thinking. You're learning something new for the first time, you're not quite sure why other people think you should learn it, you know you need to pass the exam to continue next year/get a job/avoid getting a job.... "Thinking" is hard so let's look for "arithmetic" ways through the course. So every now and again I stick the occasional non-standard question in, and over the year I try to encourage people to develop the general habits of thought that will help with these previously unseen kinds of problem. But there are always people who want to know "how do you do that problem?"

How interesting, then, to also come across another blog post about a book I haven't read which seems to be all about avoiding that pull of gravity right at the start of education; about making Maths interesting by emphasising concepts and ideas rather than memorising techniques and for standard sorts of problems. When I meet people they bring grown-up motivations. They meet me, and Maths, in the course of a greater project of making their way through life and they're looking for strategies to get them through the course. If involvement in what we might call the internal life of the subject turns out to be the best way to deal with the course, well, that's a pleasant surprise. As children they don't yet have those motivations; mere "arithmetic" holds no interest for them. But ideas, thinking, well, that'll drag you in every time,

"Looking at the night sky" - 2015

Only a few months since I used that title in a blog posting. This one is almost identical, deals with the planned Astronomy weekend in the Highlands next autumn, 13 - 15 November 2015. Mark your diaries now!

I'm using the blog as a place to assemble some bits and pieces of information about the Astronomy weekend being offered by the Centre for Open Studies, in cooperation with the Scottish Youth Hostel Association. On the weekend of 13 - 15 November 2015, Douglas Cooper and I will be tutors for a weekend titled, Looking at the night sky. Here's the course description from the Open Studies course programme (or at least the one we used last year):

We will introduce the night sky, stars and constellations, telescope usage and first steps in astrophotography. Our venue will be Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, a beautiful setting distinguished by its remoteness and consequent dark, star-filled skies. Workshops, computer activities and games in the event of unsuitable weather. See Centre for Open Studies website for details.

So, a weekend introducing Astronomy, in a dark, remote location. Here are some more details:

Where is this place? Loch Ossian is at the eastern end of Rannoch Moor, marked on this map. No public road goes there. Unless you're up for a long walk from the nearest public road (which would be lovely, for those who enjoy such challenges), you get there by train to Corrour station. Corrour station is on the West Highland line, the train line that goes from Glasgow (Queen Street station) to Oban or Fort William. People coming from further south might prefer to leave a car at Rannoch or Bridge of Orchy stations, from where Corrour is just a couple of stops along the West Highland line. The Youth Hostel is about 20 minutes' leisurely walk along a "well made track" from the train station. We'd definitely encourage people to bring their own equipment - telescopes, binoculars, cameras - but you should assume you will need to bring it on the train and then in your rucksack along that well-made track.

Why go there? At left I've included a map showing the amount of artificial light experienced across Europe (from http://www.lightpollution.it/dmsp/). Light pollution now spoils most Europeans' views of the night sky. You'll notice on that map that the biggest remaining dark areas in the continent are in Norway or Scotland. We'll be in the middle of the Scottish dark area, and a long way from even small towns. As long as the weather cooperates we will enjoy very fine views of the beautiful but elusive sights of the night sky. The Milky Way will be obvious. We'll be able to spot the Andromeda Galaxy with our naked eyes.

There are many more luxurious places one could stay in the Highlands. The sheer remoteness of Loch Ossian will be an additional pull for some.

We're going to the Highlands of Scotland in November. Let's be honest: the weather could be awful! No telescope that you look through with your eyes can compensate for rain and clouds. Even if this happens we'll still be able to discuss the night sky, some modern ideas of planets, stars and the Universe, and telescopes and astrophotography in a remote and beautiful setting.

More on Scottish dark skies here; of course there is now a Dark Sky Park in Galloway, and the island of Coll has been designated a Dark Sky Island.

Youth hostel The SYHA website has more information on Loch Ossian Youth Hostel. You can see that it is comfortable and well managed with due attention to sustainability in a potentially fragile location. We should mention that accommodation will be in its two shared dormitories. No single rooms - sorry. We will supply more hostel information to anybody who signs up.

By the way, just in case there's any doubt, you don't need to be a "youth" to use a Youth Hostel!

What will we be doing? On the Friday and Saturday nights we will look at the sky, clouds allowing, with our own eyes and with telescopes and binoculars, and take some first steps at astrophotography. Douglas and I will help you in this. As we look we can discuss the nature of what we're seeing - some of the best conversations I've ever had about stars, planets, galaxies etc. have been as a wee group of people viewed them in a telescope. If the night is clear we'll keep going until people run out of steam, and start slow and lazy the next morning if necessary.

Bring many layers of warm clothing. Douglas and I will have a couple of telescopes with us so don't worry if you don't have anything appropriate yourself, or if it's too difficult to bring it to Loch Ossian.

During the day we'll look at a variety of telescopes and discuss their pros and cons, talk about what's in the night sky just now, how the sky changes, how to plan an observing session, and have a couple of wee talks on modern astrophysics, the natures of the objects we can see, straying a little into big or exotic topics like black holes and the Big Bang. We'll try to respond to suggestions and questions. We'll also have a close look at our very own nearest star, the Sun - "daytime astronomy" (My own research is on the Sun. Solar astronomers talk about "night-time Astronomy", meaning the whole of the rest of the subject!). We'll bring a couple of ideas for astronomical games, etc., for light relief - especially if the clouds do not cooperate and we're stuck inside in the evenings.

Fee Last year the fee was £130. It might go up a bit; we'll have it fixed exactly very soon - before the brochure goes to press this year. The fee includes accommodation, all meals and tuition. You are responsible for getting there yourself. There are enrolment instructions at this link but you can't enrol yet - soon! Bookmark our website, maybe keep an eye on our Twitter or Facebook.

Tutors I work in the Centre for Open Studies, University of Glasgow. Among other duties I teach and organise courses for the public in Astronomy and Physics. I've been doing this job for a long time so I've heard lots of questions and worked out my answers to them. I believe I can speak understandably with all sorts of different people and you can maybe judge that from some of the other posts on this blog (this one, for example, or this one).

Douglas Cooper is a mainstay of several Central Scotland Astronomical societies and a skilled astrophotographer (i.e. photographer of objects in the night sky). You can see some examples of his images here and here. Some of his images of the aurora and noctilucent clouds have been featured on spaceweather.com.

I hope this sounds interesting and indeed exciting and that we might meet at Loch Ossian. I might update and refine this posting over the next couple of weeks. If you have pressing questions you can always email me.

Credit for the light pollution map: P. Cinzano, F. Falchi (University of Padova), C. D. Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder). Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. Reproduced from the Monthly Notices of the RAS by permission of Blackwell Science.

"Looking at the night sky"

This time I'm using the blog as a place to assemble some bits and pieces of information about the Astronomy weekend being offered by the Centre for Open Studies, in cooperation with the Scottish Youth Hostel Association. On the weekend of 20 - 22 November, Douglas Cooper and I will be tutors for a weekend titled, Looking at the night sky. Here's the course description from the Open Studies course programme:

We will introduce the night sky, stars and constellations, telescope usage and first steps in astrophotography. Our venue will be Loch Ossian Youth Hostel, a beautiful setting distinguished by its remoteness and consequent dark, star-filled skies. Workshops, computer activities and games in the event of unsuitable weather. See Centre for Open Studies website for details.

So, a weekend introducing Astronomy, in a dark, remote location. Here are some more details:

Where is this place? Loch Ossian is at the eastern end of Rannoch Moor, marked on this map. No public road goes there. Unless you're up for a long walk from the nearest public road (which would be lovely, for those who enjoy such challenges), you get there by train to Corrour station. Corrour station is on the West Highland line, the train line that goes from Glasgow (Queen Street station) to Oban or Fort William. People coming from further south might prefer to leave a car at Rannoch or Bridge of Orchy stations, from where Corrour is just a couple of stops along the West Highland line. The Youth Hostel is about 20 minutes' leisurely walk along a "well made track" from the train station.

Why go there? At left I've included a map showing the amount of artificial light experienced across Europe (from http://www.lightpollution.it/dmsp/). Light pollution now spoils most Europeans' views of the night sky. You'll notice on that map that the biggest remaining dark areas in the continent are in Norway or Scotland. We'll be in the middle of the Scottish dark area, and a long way from even small towns. As long as the weather cooperates we will enjoy very fine views of the beautiful but elusive sights of the night sky. The Milky Way will be obvious. We'll be able to spot the Andromeda Galaxy with our naked eyes.

We're going to the Highlands of Scotland in November. Let's be honest: the weather could be awful! No telescope that you look through with your eyes can compensate for rain and clouds. Even if this happens we'll still be able to discuss the night sky, some modern ideas of planets, stars and the Universe, and telescopes and astrophotography in a remote and beautiful setting.

More on Scottish dark skies here; of course there is now a Dark Sky Park in Galloway, and the island of Coll has been designated a Dark Sky Island.

Youth hostel The SYHA website has more information on Loch Ossian Youth Hostel. You can see that it is comfortable and well managed with due attention to sustainability in a potentially fragile location. We should mention that accommodation will be in its two shared dormitories. No single rooms - sorry! We will supply more hostel information to anybody who signs up.

By the way, just in case there's any doubt, you don't need to be a "youth" to use a Youth Hostel!

What will we be doing? On the Friday and Saturday nights we will look at the sky, clouds allowing, with our own eyes and with telescopes and binoculars, and take some first steps at astrophotography. Douglas and I will help you in this. As we look we can discuss the nature of what we're seeing - some of the best conversations I've ever had about stars, planets, galaxies etc. have been as a wee group of people viewed them in a telescope. If the night is clear we'll keep going until people run out of steam, and start slow and lazy the next morning if necessary.

Bring many layers of warm clothing. You can also bring your own wee telescopes or binoculars, if you want - as long as they'll go on the train! - but Douglas and I will have a couple of telescopes with us.

During the day we'll look at a variety of telescopes and discuss their pros and cons, talk about what's in the night sky just now, how the sky changes, how to plan an observing session, and have a couple of wee talks on modern astrophysics, the natures of the objects we can see, straying a little into big or exotic topics like black holes and the Big Bang. We'll try to respond to suggestions and questions. We'll also have a close look at our very own nearest star, the Sun - "daytime astronomy" (My own research is on the Sun. Solar astronomers talk about "night-time Astronomy", meaning the whole of the rest of the subject!). We'll bring a couple of ideas for astronomical games, etc., for light relief - especially if the clouds do not cooperate and we're stuck inside in the evenings.

Fee The fee of £130 includes accommodation, all meals and tuition. You are responsible for getting there yourself. There are enrolment instructions at this link. If you go straight to enrolment, the title of the weekend is Looking at the night sky and the course code is 16973.

Tutors I work in the Centre for Open Studies, University of Glasgow. Among other duties I teach and organise courses for the public in Astronomy and Physics. I've been doing this job for a long time so I've heard lots of questions and worked out my answers to them. I believe I can speak understandably with all sorts of different people and you can maybe judge that from some of the other posts on this blog (this one, for example, or this one).

Douglas Cooper is a mainstay of several Central Scotland Astronomical societies and a skilled astrophotographer (i.e. photographer of objects in the night sky). You can see some examples of his images here and here. Some of his images of the aurora and noctilucent clouds have been featured on spaceweather.com.

I hope this sounds interesting and indeed exciting and that we might meet at Loch Ossian. I'll probably update and refine this posting over the next couple of weeks.

Credit for the light pollution map: P. Cinzano, F. Falchi (University of Padova), C. D. Elvidge (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder). Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. Reproduced from the Monthly Notices of the RAS by permission of Blackwell Science.

Shooting a man

I'm working on tonight's class, the second meeting of Hands-On Space Astronomy. This is a course that aims to help people to explore Astronomy in a little bit more depth once they have a little basic knowledge. It relies on the free availability of vast quantities of data from space missions and also some ground-based observatories, and simple tools for accessing, manipulating and combining these data, all tied together nowadays in so-called Virtual Observatories. Some of these tools and the interfaces to them have changed a bit since I last taught the course. Also we would always want to revise a slightly unconventional course like this each time we run it: what went well; what should have been done differently? So there's a bit to prepare and think about.

I needed a breath of air and a wee break from this work so I popped out and went to a slightly more distant sandwich shop than usual. On the way I passed a shop selling home furnishings, devices for the kitchen, etc. A sign in the window said, "No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes." Now, I don't believe this. I think if a woman had decided to shoot a man, while he was doing the dishes would be one of the better moments. His attention would be on the sink, soap suds and what lay beneath them, the thorough removal of fatty grime, etc. He might not even hear the arms-bearing woman come up behind him, far less realise her intention.

You might argue that a man who regularly does dishes is less likely to find himself in the cross-hairs. That might be true but "less likely" does not mean, "never". If the woman has made up her mind to do the deed, an episode of dish-washing won't change her mind. It will only present an opportunity.

Do women themselves sometimes get shot by men while doing the dishes? A whole other, potentially fertile field of discussion is left barren.

So on the whole I will be very surprised if no man anywhere has ever been shot while doing the dishes. Now back to Hands-On Space Astronomy.

Open Studies Astronomy bulletin

A few times a year I send out a wee email bulletin for people who come to some of our courses (let me know if you'd like to get these). The aim is to let them know - or remind them - of Glasgow University Open Studies Astronomy and Physics courses and day schools, and to highlight other interesting events in the Glasgow area. Here's the latest:

1. IMMINENT

   I've only just heard that the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory is hosting a visit from the science writer Stuart Clark, TOMORROW, 10 May. Stuart Clark is an excellent writer on Astronomy and Physics topics ("The Sun Kings"; "The Sky's Dark Labyrinth"; regular pieces in the Guardian). You may also have seen him interviewed by Philomena Cunk on the subject of "time" on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe - clearly a man who doesn't take himself too seriously. I haven't heard him speak but I've heard good things. See http://www.scottishdarkskyobservatory.co.uk/events/dr-stuart-clark-lecture-and-stargazing/

2. The Institute of Physics are now hosting a series of talks here in Glasgow, aimed at a very broad audience. The titles so far have been really interesting, to my eye, including both pure and applied topics. The next of these will be given on Thursday 15 May, 19.00 in the Kelvin Building here in the University, by Dr Stuart Reid from the University of the West of Scotland: "Giving stem cells a good nano-kicking". More details at http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/ioplect/
3. Glasgow City of Science has a new website to showcase the city as a leading international destination for scientific discovery and innovation. Their words: "A diverse range of influential, partner organisations with local, national and international reach have come together through the Glasgow City of Science initiative to leverage our scientific potential as a major driver of sustainable economic development and to demonstrate the importance of communicating science as part of the region’s wider heritage and culture." So the City of Science project is about industry and companies, but also education and outreach. You'll find lots of interesting events on their Events page, and you might like to subscribe to their e-bulletin.
4. We ourselves have a couple of Astronomy events in the summer programme:

   Astronomy when the skies are bright, ideas and activities to stay involved with the wider universe even although it's difficult to see in Scotland in the summer. Douglas Cooper, Andrew Conway and myself; Saturday 24 May, 10.00 - 15.00

   Weighing the Earth on Schiehallion, Perthshire, recalling Nevil Maskelyne's fundamental experiment to determine the mass of the Earth, and taking a day to actually visit the mountain. With Andrew Conway, who in 2005 was involved in an attempt to repeat this experiment with modern equipment. Evening of 18 June and all day 21 June.

Phew

busy, busy weeks. Seven hours of teaching per week, all squeezed into a 26 hour period that starts at 19.30 on a Wednesday. Two more hours will be added soon (I know, from outside academia seven hours may not sound like a lot, but each hour of face to face contact needs more hours of preparation). Also:

• a school pupil spent a week doing work experience with me. Very rewarding for me, I think new and exciting for her
• we had our first Cosmic Way public event, a mix of cosmic ray and subatomic physics, solar-terrestrial interactions, and Scottish science history, hopefully made accessible for all sorts of people. Watch that website, by the way - more to come. Special mention for the music by Drew Mulholland.
• we were visited by Christian Monstein, from ETH Zurich, who helped us to establish a wee radio telescope looking for bursts of radio waves from the Sun. Our telescope uses Christian's Callisto receiver, and contributes its data to the e-Callisto network. Here's our first solar radio burst - doesn't look like much, I know - we'll open it up in other blog postings. Here is Christian's report of its setting-up
• the Centre for Open Studies had its official launch event, a very nice day with taster sessions on many of our subjects (yes, including Astronomy), and with representatives from many of friends in other organisations, like the Astronomical Society of Glasgow
• I took a couple of posters to the Royal Astronomical Society discussion meeting on solar radiophysics, one on our e-Callisto node and the other on the work Aline Dinkelaker and I carried out together, asking: "do solar flares behave like avalanches or cascades?"

And of course all the other jobs that go with the start of the teaching year and with keeping the research going, some just as interesting as those I've listed. Too much blogging - back to work.