SCIENCE ON A TABLE
Public outreach for HESPE concentrated on developing the exhibit module SCIENCE ON A TABLE – THE SUN.
The tabletop exhibit has been designed for communicating ‘difficult-to-understand’ high energy solar physics at public events like science festivals and open door days. A Sun-Earth model, small satellites observing the Sun and boxes containing data from each satellite create an intelligible context for people of all ages and diverse backgrounds.
SCIENCE ON A TABLE offers a hands-on approach to solar science and fosters the dialogue between visitors and scientists. It facilitates scientists’ participation at public events, providing educational materials to be used with little preparatory effort.
The exhibit unit is mobile – all materials fit into a box. Project partners who wish to use the box for an event in their countries can contact Hanna Sathiapal at hanna.sathiapal (at) fhnw.ch.
Up to this date, SCIENCE ON A TABLE has been used for the EU-Open Doors in Bruxelles, May 2013, with approximately 10 000 visitors and at two science festivals in Switzerland, and it was presented in Italy at the Genova Science Festival in October 2013.
The module can be used beyond the duration of HESPE to support public outreach for new EU-research projects and for communicating other areas of heliophysics.
More information and all materials are available on the SCIENCE ON A TABLE website.
RHESSI Nuggets
A Wiki-based approach to solar flares hosting several contributions from HESPE people can be found here.
HESPE Open Days
HESPE scientists have opened the door of their research activity to the non-specialized public on two occasions: the Open Doors of the European Institutions on May 4 2013 and the Festival della Scienza 2013 that took place in Genova from October 23 to November 3. The first event has represented the first attempt that our crew has made in order to disseminate high energy solar physics in a larger context. The Open Day in Genova has prolonged the works of the third and final HESPE meeting (hosted by the Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Genova) with an outreach event in the framework of the most established and successful science festival in Italy.
On that occasion HESPE scientists realized this short video summing up HESPE three-year activity.