RiBB Schoolsat Programme - First results of how to use university satellites to encurage secondary school students to pursue technical careers.
- Paper number
IAC-08.E1.1.10
- Author
Mr. Tom Segert, TSB Innovation Agency Berlin GmbH / FAV, Germany
- Coauthor
Mr. Bjoern Danziger, Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Germany
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The paper will report about the latest findings of the RiBB Schoolsat Programme (http://www.schoolsat.de). The aim of this programme is to encurage youngsters in secondary schools to pursue a technical career by giving them hands on experience of university satellites. Starting point of Schoolsat that despite the fact that modern society needs scientist and technicans the numbers of students attending those subjecs in universities do stagnate or even decline. Since personal careers are often decided in a very early stage of personal development school is the road to go if one wants to interest more people to go for technical career. It is the personal experience of the author that those subjecs appeal most where one can see the personal value and use. Sometimes it only takes interesting school projects and commited teachers to make a difference. Technical basis of the Schoolsat project are famous TUBSAT university satellites built by Prof. Udo Renner at the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin). The Schoolsat team has set up a scenario where the interactive control of the satellites can be transfered directly to the classroom using telepresence technology and the internet. In a recent pilot phase this mode of operation was tested and the overwhelming success will be reported in the paper. The author hopes that given the positive example during the trials with the TUBSAT satellites the Schoolsat aproach will encurage other Universities to use their satellites for directly interacting with secondary schools students and ultimately establish a kind of "operational service" where the participating secondary school students learn about the use of satellite technology and its technical background whereas university students will get a sustainable and inspiring mission for their satellites.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.E1.1.10.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.