National Space Centre: Kids use vcon in volcano mission

What was your child doing at school today? While some parents would probably rather not know, those with children at Redbridge Primary School in east London would have been very proud recently. Pupils there coordinated the evacuation of thousands of residents from the Caribbean island of Montserrat, fleeing an erupting volcano. This mission was achieved using a live presentation via videoconferencing link between the National Space Centre in Leicester and the school, organised with the help of the London Grid for Learning (LGfL).

The interactive presentation (a simulation, it must be said) uses real data and video from previous hurricanes and volcanoes on the island.

The event is not part of a structured geography or media studies lesson as such, but is used by the school as a team-building exercise to encourage cooperation among its pupils. The pupils, all Year 6 (ages 10-11), use a combination of maths, geography, science and IT skills during the 90-minute task.

The presentation is actually aimed at key stages 3 and 4, but the National Space Centre has found that it can be tailored from Year 6 up to sixth-form pupils. The 30 pupils are divided into four groups while two pupils take the senior roles of communications officer and data officer.

Two sessions per day

The presentation is driven from the National Space Centre by Commander Charlie (a trained primary school teacher), who issues tasks for the evacuation process. Such is the popularity of these sessions that the Space Centre is now running up to two sessions a day since it set up Operation Montserrat four years ago, and has run 156 sessions in 2009.

‘It started very slowly and we had to go out and sell the idea because teachers didn’t know anything about videoconferencing,’ says Chris Darby, education manager for the Space Centre.

All communication is done via an Aethra X3 unit (on loan from Redbridge local authority) in the classroom, projected onto a 4:3 whiteboard with a Hitachi education projector providing the images. Aethra kit is used at both ends of the videoconference, with an X5 unit installed in Leicester (the Space Centre also has a Polycom system, used when running two shows simultaneously).

Initially LGfL bought a set of 10 Operation Montserrat E-missions from the National Space Centre for Newham.  Because of the success in Newham another set of 10 E-missions were bought for Redbridge.

The LGfL is an initiative by the 33 London local authorities, started originally to provide broadband for the education community in London. Its remit is now to create a pan-London videoconferencing facility across the region at no cost to schools. Mina Patel, curriculum consultant for the north-east London area of the LGfL, has promoted investment in videoconferencing in her area and has seen its use double in the past four years.

Schools in London also have the benefit of LVCNet, a dedicated videoconferencing port for schools in the capital. ‘Technically schools are perfectly set up for videoconferencing in London, nothing will be going down that port other than video,’ says Patel. Whenever possible the Space Centre encourages schools to use the JANET education network, for the technical backup the system provides. JANET can also iron out irregularities in codec when transmitting from one manufacturer’s unit to another.

The issue of image quality, which has dogged videoconferencing in the past, is still present in some schools though. ‘It’s getting better with broadband, but we are still dealing with very blurry pictures right up to HD images at the other end. As long as we can see them vaguely and hear them it’s ok, it’s more important that they can see us,’ explains Darby. The Space Centre now provides training to teachers before the sessions take place, using the videoconferencing units, so they do not come to the technology (and the sessions) cold.

This is the third year running Redbridge primary school has run Operation Montserrat. The show is interspersed with real video footage (from an actual eruption on the island in 1996) to help make it as realistic as possible. It begins with a space shuttle launch, which relays back vital geological information to the teams to aid the evacuation.

Immersive experience

Throughout the show Commander Charlie issues tasks, each with a five-minute deadline, to help keep those with short attention spans occupied. Using a camera she can see which individuals or groups are losing interest and issue tasks accordingly, to help maintain levels of involvement. Special weblinks to the Space Centre are posted on screen and allow the pupils to transmit data to Commander Charlie.

On AV’s visit to the ‘control room’, the atmosphere was certainly chaotic and bustling, with all the pupils taking a role at some point. The busy environment helped to create an immersive experience and speaking to the children afterwards, they loved the realistic feel of being in an emergency control room scene.

‘It brings a real-life experience into the classroom for the students. There is no other way of using any other technology other than videoconferencing to feed that expertise from the Space Centre to the classroom,’ comments Patel.

However the fast-paced nature of the event means it will only work with a quick and reliable videoconferencing link. Trying to control a room of 30 children is difficult enough without having to entertain them if the screen freezes. On AV’s visit the link worked without any disruption, no doubt helped by the LVCNet and it being Aethra kit at both ends. The children certainly did not seem to have any reservations about speaking into a microphone/camera either. There is no doubt the interactivity of the presentation helps to raise this from a passive video experience into something more immersive. ‘It brings out a lot in children who are not very academic. It brings them to the front as it’s a different way of learning,’ says Darby.

The use of the link also helps to bring a visitor attraction to children who live too far to visit the Centre themselves, and real video footage brings events and places halfway around the world right into an east London classroom. The session ends with all teams reporting back to the commander at the end, providing the opportunity for everyone to find out what all the teams were doing during the exercise.

And in case you wondered, the children of Redbridge Primary School helped to evacuate 8,000 Montserrat residents, with only four poor souls failing to escape the lava.

KEY FACTS: National Space Centre

- In 2008 the National Space Centre received more than 63,000 schoolchildren who took part in workshops and simulated space missions. There are also outreach programmes to schools, including planetarium workshops and lessons incorporating videoconferencing skills

- National Space Centre is a not-for-profit organisation set up by Leicester City Council and opened in June 2001

- The Centre is the UK’s largest visitor attraction dedicated to space and space exploration with about 250,000 visitors each year

- The Centre is located three kilometres north of Leicester