Dick Sblog

A couple of interesting things appeared in my inbox over the Christmas break. One of them was an email about Rypple, a new webservice that has been set up to provide a mechamism for individuals to receive feedback. I’ve registered for the beta and will be using it to get audience feedback on a couple of caving lectures that I’m due to give in the next few weeks. I am, of course, God’s gift to public speaking but it might be useful to get some confirmation of that… or otherwise! All responses are anonymised which could be a shame as I might want to have a serious discussion with any members of my audience who disagree with my self-opinion. I’m only joking, of course; I think that this opportunity to get targeted feedback could be fantastic in all sorts of contexts and I just wish that I’d had the brains to think of it myself.

The other good thing (things) was some information about the Natural History Museum’s Darwin 200 initiative (for which I must thank Lynne at iEARN UK).

Darwin200 is a programme of mainly UK-based activities celebrating Charles Darwin’s life, his ideas and their impact around his two hundredth anniversary. The collaboration brings together more than 70 UK organisations planning to celebrate the bicentenary to share ideas, and to collectively endorse and promote events. Many Darwin200 partners are developing dedicated teaching resources for the bicentenary such as science shows, resource packs, workshops, lectures and teachers’ courses. Check their website for more details.

As part of this special year, The Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) has up to 1000 telescopes to award to secondary schools, to be used by pupils aged between 11 and 14. The free telescope is a high quality 70mm refractor, and comes with a DVD (funded by the Royal Astronomical Society) showing how to use the telescope, what to look at, and much more. Secondary schools in the UK are eligible to apply for a telescope, simply fill in the form and describe to the SPA (in less than 500 words) what the class will do with the telescope. Applications close on 31 January 2009 so be quick if you are interested.