Meet the scientists!

To be honest, my day is always different and that’s what I love about science!

One day I could be working with the telescopes up at 14,000ft where the temperature is below freezing and there is hardly any oxygen!

The next day I could be meeting with astronauts, astronomers or government officials – this is cool because I get to hear about new space missions, new discoveries and whether President Obama is coming to visit us!

There will be somedays when I will have travel out to schools with a portable planetarium or some other cool activity and do some astronomy education – teaching students all about the cool stuff right above our heads.

Then there will be other days when I wil be creating awesome 3D computer graphics of amazing things in our universe like black holes, exploding stars, alien planets, galaxies and asteroids. The best thing about this is that the visuals I create are made with REAL scientific data. Then we get to see them in our planetarium which is a huge 3D screen shaped like a dome – we have to wear really cool 3D glasses to see our science come to life.. just like Avatar, it’s proper wicked!

We are really lucky in the U.K. and U.S. our schools are pretty good, we have lots of stuff like computers and ipads, decent books and great teachers! Other people though are not so lucky. In Afghanistan the kids don’t have computers, books and many do not even have classrooms because their schools have been destroyed by years of constant warfare.

Part of my job is to bring the wonders of the universe to children and students all over the world, even in warzones like Iraq and Afghanistan.

I am writing a small book for young children that will be translated into several Afghan languages and then given out free to schools. I want as many kids as possible to have a copy of this book about the night sky and space. These children deserve to have access to the same education that we all have in the U.K and it is my job to make sure this happens.

I am hoping that we can play a small part in helping these children realise their dreams – no matter what they choose to do in life.

IF I win, I will use this money to pay for the printing of the book and shipping it to Afghanistan.