Astronomy technology: building a camera to see the first galaxies

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Physics and Technology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Sam Rowe of Cardiff University, UK, and Dr Víctor Gómez and Marcial Tapia of the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, Mexico. They are using their skills in physics, electronics and engineering to build a new camera to be installed at an astronomical telescope.

• This resource also contains interviews with the team. If your students have questions for Sam, Víctor or Marcial, they can send them to them online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). The team will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on the team’s research and challenges them to identify constellations of stars in the night sky.

• The article and activity sheets are also available in Spanish, use the link below to access the translated versions.

• An animation with downloadable script about the team’s work is available from the link below.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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