Ten grade eight students from Roggeveled primary school in the small town of Sutherland (Northern Cape, South Africa), which is the home of the 3 x 1-meter class Las Cumbres Observatory (LCOGT) robotic telescopes, participated in an essay competition based on various astronomical observations they made using the LCOGT 2m Faulkes Telescopes in Hawaii and Australia. The various objects observed by these group of students include galaxies, star clusters and planetary nebulae.
Recently LCOGT has allocated some time on both the Faulkes Telescope North and South (FTN/FTS) to strengthen the education program jointly run with the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and as part of that effort this pilot project with students of Roggeveled primary school is conducted. So far more than 12hrs of observing time is used and various astronomical objects were observed by the students. We hope that a much larger program which involves more students from South Africa as well as the rest of Africa will be done once the LCOGT 1-meter telescopes in Sutherland are open for normal operation.
After acquiring their data by remotely observing their targets using the computer facility made available by the South African Astronomical observatory (SAAO) in Sutherland community center, the students worked in five groups with each group having two students. They spent quite some time researching and collecting various information about their targets before they put together what they found and wrote their essay. The project, in addition to expanding the participant's astronomy knowledge, also helped them develop their computer and writing kills, as well as realizing the importance of group work.
With support from the South African Astronomical observatory education department, all the participating students got a chance to travel to Cape Town and visit the Cape Town Science Center, Iziko museum and the headquarters of the South African Astronomical observatory. The visit, in addition to creating an opportunity to see the various places and activities mentioned above, exposed the students to the life and activities of big cities. At the end of the program a prize was given to the group that wrote the best essay.
Eventually the students also got a chance to interact with various astronomers on site and also spend sometime chatting and discussing various things about their project with Dr Edward Gomez who is the director of Education at LCOGT via skype. Edward has been instrumental in making this project happen by facilitating the use of the robotic telescopes.
I would like to thank all involved in this project and make it happened. This includes Dr Edward Gomez (LCOGT education director), Dr JD Armstrong (Hawaii) , Mr Sivuyile Manxoyi (SAAO head of education and public outreach), Mr Anthoni Mietas (SAAO Sutherland head of Education and public outreach), Mr. Karel Klein (SAAO Sutherland education and logistics officer) and Mr Willem Prins (SAAO Sutherland tour guide)