BRT: Making a difference in schools

A number of our users have asked us about what the telescope does when it’s not taking pictures for our subscribers. Although a big part of our mission is making a professional telescope available to amateur astronomers who wouldn't normally have access to one, the telescope was initially built as a resource for schools and we dedicate a significant proportion of our observing time to schoolchildren.

Lagoon Nebula by East Whitby Community Primary pupil

“The children loved investigating using their own image, they really felt like scientists using the system” Heather Wood, Wellington Primary School

The Bradford Robotic Telescope works with nearly 450 primary and secondary schools across West Yorkshire, the UK and internationally each year. We support 1911 teachers around the world, helping teachers who have no background in science to teach space by providing them with all the resources they need. We have created more than twenty lesson plans and dozens of games and activities that we make available to schools. In total, pupils have ordered 210,000 pictures of space, using 1,600 hours of telescope time, submitting 91,000 images to our gallery. They have also answered 665,000 questions on our website’s many education quizzes.

Moon by Alma Park Primary pupil

“As a teacher it was wonderful to have some ‘expert training’ on a topic and to have the teaching materials made available afterwards on the website” Clare Oddy, Rawdon St Peter’s Primary School

We visit more than 200 schools each year to lead lessons and activity days and provide training for teachers. Since 2008, between 26,000 and 33,000 pupils have seen a member of the Bradford University team. All students at the schools we work with get individual accounts and can use them both at school and at home with their families  to take as many images as they want. 35% of pupils  choose to use the site in their free time.

Pinwheel Galaxy by Deeplish Community Primary pupil

“I never knew that our planet is so small compared to the Sun, I always thought we were the biggest. I didn’t think that science was so interesting” Pupil, Cliffe Hill Primary School

Our aims in working with schools are to raise attainment and aspirations amongst pupils. 90% of students who we work with say that we have helped them with their schoolwork. We give students who wouldn’t necessarily consider going to university a really positive experience of working with the University of Bradford. 85% of students say that working with us has made them want to go to university more with 40% saying we have made them want it “a lot”.

99% of teachers say that working with us has encouraged their pupils to study science and 74% say that working with the Bradford Robotic Telescope has encouraged their pupils to go to University. 

It is our hope that our mission to inspire all with access to the stars will continue long into the future, partly thanks to the generous contributions of our members.