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The Tactile Universe: accessible astrophysics for vision impaired school children

Funder: UK Research and InnovationProject code: ST/V001515/1
Funded under: STFC Funder Contribution: 49,968 GBP

The Tactile Universe: accessible astrophysics for vision impaired school children

Description

The Tactile Universe is an award-winning public engagement project based at the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmolgy and Gravitation that is empowering and raising the aspirations of students with vision impairments (VI) by making current astrophysics research topics accessible to them. To date, the project has developed and used its tactile resources to help VI children experience the size and scale of our solar system and understand what gives every galaxy in the Universe its own unique colour and shape. With the support of the STFC, the project now has the chance to expand to cover even more exciting topics, and ensure its legacy in the coming years. Predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, as part of his theory of general relativity, gravitational waves were not detected until 2015, when the merging of two black holes in a distant galaxy (one of the most cataclysmic and energetic events that can occur in the Universe) caused ripples in space-time that were detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) instrument. Working with LIGO scientists at the University of Portsmouth and around the UK, the Tactile Universe team will develop resources and activities suitable for VI students aged 14-16, covering the detection of, and science behind, gravitational-waves. To make sure that the project's resources, old and new, reach everybody that they can, the Tactile Universe is working to train and grow a network of presenters who will deliver activities to VI students wherever they are based. The resources that the Tactile Universe will develop during this STFC Legacy Award will also be made available online through www.tactileuniverse.org, alongside our existing tactile resources, lesson plans and guides currently shared on the website. With access to a 3D printer, anybody will be able to download and make their own set of tactile resources to feel the awe inspiring shapes and structures of galaxies and understand gravitational-waves, one of the most exciting areas in astrophysics today.

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