China Direct

U.K. and China launch teacher training programme using space science

 

On 14 March 2016, the U.K. and China launched an innovative teacher training programme using space science to inspire secondary students. A team of the U.K.’s top space scientists and science teachers will arrive in China to launch the new programme.

The U.K.’s National Space Academy Director, Anu Ojha, will lead the team to run a set of demonstration masterclasses. They will showcase techniques for using inspirational space science to boost student engagement and achievement and enhance teacher effectiveness in high school science.

Chinese and British teachers and students will attend the classes, which, for this pilot phase, will be held at the British School of Beijing in Shunyi and Nord Anglia International School Shanghai in Pudong.

The Space Academy already runs masterclasses for 7,000 students and teacher training for 1,000 teachers across the U.K. annually.

This is the first time the programme will run in China. The programme is part of a wider space education and training relationship between the U.K. and China.

The National Academy Space team will discuss with Chinese partners the potential to develop a wider joint programme of teacher training and student masterclasses that synthesise the very best practice from education and science systems in both China and the U.K.

Please read more here.

European Space Agency competition win shows strength of University of Nottingham Ningbo campus engineering department

 

CBI member The University of Nottingham recently announced that a team in the University of Nottingham Ningbo China's (UNNC) Department of Civil Engineering was the only China-based entry among the winners of a competition run by the European Space Agency (ESA).

The competition involved accurately tracking and positioning using Europe's current satellites.

Please click here to read the full press release by the University of Nottingham.

ESA space observatory Gaia blasts off with E2V technology onboard

 

 

Yesterday, Thursday 19th December,  was a very important day for CBI member E2V. On board the European Space Agency's space observatory Gaia was the largest focal plane array ever to be flown into space. 

The specialist image sensors that constitute the array were custom designed, manufactured and tested by Chelmsford based CBI member E2V.

This massively powerful billion pixel camera will map the Milky Way in unprecedented detail, discovering planets, asteroids and exploding stars over the next five years.

For more information about this truly remarkable project please read the press release here. With many congratulations to E2V from the CBI.

Happy Christmas and New Year to China Direct readers!