The National Space Academy is built upon the foundation of excellent teachers, who inspire and engage in the classroom. It is with great pleasure that we can announce that two of our lead educators have received national recognition of their excellence and commitment to space education.
For the third year, out of the last four, a National Space Academy lead educator has been awarded with the Patrick Moore Medal for astronomy by the Royal Astronomical Society.
The award is presented to a secondary school teacher for a particularly noteworthy contribution to astronomy or geophysics.
This year the award presented to Tim Browett, teacher at Robert Gordon College and National Space Academy lead educator, for his overarching achievements to the teaching of astronomy and engaging with schools and members of the public around the topic of astronomy. An example of such an event took place for the transit of Mercury, where Tim reached more than 200 pupils, staff and members of the public.
As 2017 began with an award, so 2016 ended with one, as Mike Grocott, lead educator and space education ambassador was awarded the winner of the Sir Arthur Clarke Award for space achievement in education at the Sir Arthur Clarke Awards hosted by the British Interplanetary Society and the Arthur C Clarke Foundation. Mike received his award for setting up the first Space Studio School in the UK and a life-long dedication to space education.
When asked about how he felt about being given the award, Mike Grocott said 'it was humbling and with a slight sense of relief having been nominated twice before, the award though was only gained thanks to the work of the other nominees who have supported me over the past few years'.