Tag: Science Festival

Computers are key at The Thistles Shopping Centre

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By Nikita Vance

 

The Thistles Shopping Centre is all about computers this week, as they host a coding challenge and an electronic art instalment for the Stirling Science Festival which is set to end on 22 October. The festival has been providing a plethora of events aimed at children and young people, to keep them entertained while still learning over the autumn break.

Betty the Basking Shark is a sculpture created by Edinburgh artist, Johnathan Elders, with the sole aim of outlining the sheer magnitude of the electronic waste problem in Scotland. It was created using various second-hand electronic devices which include more than two hundred keyboards and water panels, each one being saved from going to landfill; alongside two projector lenses and TV screens which show a film detailing the real and raw impact of e-waste that gets shipped overseas each year.

Talking about his inspiration behind the piece Elders said, “I chose the basking shark, native to Scotland, as I encountered one as a child whilst on a boat trip to Bass Rock in North Berwick. This moment had a huge impact on me, and it has stayed with me ever since.

“I didn’t want to be subtle. As a nation, we have so much to be proud of – like these magnificent creatures – but we also have a massive problem that we’re just not doing enough to address. Like producing such vast quantities of e-waste.

“As the footage shows, much of this waste is shipped away to other parts of the world so that we can forget about it. But that needs to stop.

“Betty is the name of a lovely local lady – a total character who knows everybody. She lives overlooking Newhaven Harbour but won’t go anywhere near it because she is scared of the sea. Hence the reason I called the shark Betty, because like the real-life Betty, this shark will never go to the sea!”

It is only fitting that this computer constructed sculpture be accompanied by a coding challenge, which is available to interact with around Thistles via a QR code. The prompt for the challenge is “Create a text based adventure game using any piece of software. In a classic interactive fiction book your story would change depending on what option you picked at various points …there was always more than one ending to the story or you sometimes never made it to the end of a story! We would like you to create a similar story using software.”

Some of the suggestions for software entrants can use include Scratch; Python; Makecode; and Javascript or you could simply create a game using an interactive Google Slide which utilises hyperlinks to make each choice and progress the story. Thistles also encourages entrants to get creative and tell whatever story their heart desires, provided it is appropriate for public consumption.

Learn more about the coding challenge here.

Stirling gets starry-eyed for observatory

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By Peter Humfrey

 

The Observatory has opened it’s doors for the evening as part of the Stirling Science Festival, giving locals a chance to see inside one of the city’s hidden gems.

The event, yesterday evening, was hosted by the Stirling Astronomical Society, the custodians of the observatory and it’s Newtonian reflector telescope. 

More than 120 people attended, greatly exceeding expectations, with chairman, Deirdre Bryce, describing the turnout as “excellent”

Groups of people were taken up a narrow spiral stairway to the roof of the old High School, now Stirling Highland Hotel, and from there into the small wooden observatory.

 

Observatory guide, Bert Mackenzie, was on hand to talk about the observatory and explain the use of the 133-year-old telescope and answer questions from visitors.

The plan had been to gaze out at giants such as Saturn, Jupiter, and Earth’s closest planetary neighbour, Mars. Sadly the weather had other ideas and, faced with poor visibility the telescope was instead pointed at the Wallace Monument to show off its powerful zoom.

Chairman Deirdre Bryce, the society’s first female chairperson, spoke of how it was “very nice to know people are interested enough to turnout to something they didn’t know existed”

Speaking to The Stirling Scope, Bryce spoke of her path into astronomy, with a Christmas present of a telescope from her eldest son, before joining both Falkirk and Stirling’s astronomical societies when she moved north to Scotland.

The observatory has a storied history, dating back to 1889, being a gift from then MP for Stirling Burghs, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was later knighted and went on to serve as Prime Minister from 1905 to 1908. The observatory tower was designed by former pupil, and architect, James McLaren, who sadly died before it’s completion.

The centre-piece of the observatory, the 9ft telescope, was designed, constructed and installed in 1889 by 27yr-old, and later knighted, William Peck, City Astronomer of Edinburgh.  From 1906 onward it fell into disuse until the appearance of Comet Kohoutek in 1974 prompted staff and pupils to begin work on restoring the old telescope. By April of that year the telescope was restored and has been used regularly ever since.

For those inspired by last night’s event, or who simply have the time, next week on Tuesday is a partial solar eclipse. For those viewing the eclipse it is advised you do not stare directly at it but instead make use of a pinhole viewer, of which the instructions on how to make one are available online.

Anyone interested in joining the society or seeing what it’s all about they meet on the last Friday of each month at the Stirling Highland Hotel. Other than it’s historic telescope in the observatory, the society also has an array of smaller telescopes they loan out to members.