Venustransit

The reason we created the Venus Transit Expedition was to share this amazing event with the world, as a new vehicle for showing how wonderful the world of science can be. I’ve definitely spent my fair share of time with people over my short time so far here on this little blue rock. What I’ve noticed about people in general mostly, is that general people are different. I’ve also noticed that some things change, and some things don’t. These two ideas underpin what I do for a living.

On a day to day basis, I travel the country and the world talking on topics as varied as science, sport, geography, engineering and all the stuff in between. I show people the science of extreme sports, the wonders of the universe, and the grandeur of adventure. What I mainly do is create vessles designed to break down the perceived barriers between the public and complex ideas, such as the transit. To do this, you have to remember that people are different, and things have changed.

One thing that definitely hasn’t changed, on the whole, are the schools (some countries definitely have progressed more than others). We could definitely dwell on the current education systems and talk of their unbelievable linearity, how children are put in to the process at one end, follow a linear path and come out at the other end of the factory line, designed to be good at preset subjects that are deemed to be important. Or we could look at the an-aesthetically created class room environments that come from an education system that demands it’s teachers follow a pre ordained curriculum through the day and mark exercise books in the night. I know plenty of teachers that really want to create stimulating, engaging material for their students, but the fact is they just don’t have time to create the hook and the content to put in to their lessons plans. But this is where the Venus Transit comes in.

If expeditions are anything, it’s exciting. Scott’s trip to the South Pole, Darwin’s voyage across the world, Cook’s expedition to Tahiti, all exciting adventures in themselves but also extremely educational with great content. Expeditions like these are great hooks for learning, if used correctly, they can be a platform from which to share a wealth of knowledge, with anyone, about anything! And that’s the key point, if we use them correctly. We have to remember that times of changed, if it’s students we’re going for, we can’t just teach them in the way we were taught, if it’s the public we’re focusing on, we can’t expect them to learn in the same way we learn.

Maybe then a multiplatform aggregate of rich varied content is the way forward? An array of cross media content that comes in many different learning packets. If we stick to the idea that people are different, then we have to provide content in all the different forms they would learn in. All too often we ask children to sit down and focus, but as Sir Ken Robinson so eloquently put recently, how can we expect them to not get distracted when there is such a wide abundance of information and stimuli out there for them? I know I constantly get distracted by social media like Twitter and Facebook and amazing sites such as Vimeo, YouTube and Tumblr. I still learn an awful lot from talking to people and absorbing information through human to human interactions, but the rest of it comes through my iPad, Laptop or mobile. It just seems we still think that if it doesn’t come from a book or out of the mouth of a professor, it’s not learning.

I honestly believe that everything we see and do enriches our life in some way. For me, one of the best things we can do as adventurers or Astronomers is share the Venus Transit with the rest of the world, especially as it’s such a localized event. And it just so happens, there’s a plethora of ways to do just that. Social Network sites are a dime a dozen nowadays, all offering different ways to share your content. Many of these sites are ready built for sharing content. The very ethos of sites like Facebook and Twitter are designed so that the content becomes interesting because of people liking or sharing it, it gives an essence of word of mouth to information in digital form. Video sharing sites have been under a boom too, with a number you’ll have never hear of right up to the best and most familiar like YouTube and Vimeo. However, alongside the regular content sharing sites, there are a whole load of newcomers! Sites like Ipadio are making real headway into creating almost instant content that can be created and streamed to your website in audio or video form. But also the types of content we can now upload is changing. It’s because of companies like Apple that we can now create content and data that is viewable and consumable not just by scientists anymore, but by the general public too. We can now create content and data in the field, that can be shown in its raw form to the public back home.

If you want to share an event like the Venus Transit with the public, it has to be simple and straight forward. But if you love to pass on knowledge, if you love to communicate with people, if you love to share your experience, then come follow our expedition. Of course you can come like us at our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and find out more at the Website! Get in touch with us if you’d like to sponsor us or get involved in any way!