Final Report Summary - SKY WATCH (Introducing European Youth in the World of Scientific Research through Interactive Utilisation of a Global Network of Robotic Telescopes)
The SKYWATCH project constituted an innovative approach aiming at promoting increased public scientific and research culture. This approach targeted to crosscut the boundaries between schools, research centres and science thematic parks and involve users in extended episodes of playful experience and scientific research. This target was reached basically through the deployment of two categories of initiatives involving mainly young people, an international astronomy contest and a series of science communicating events called 'Science days'. Of course, the point of reference for the contest and the communication with the participants and the wider public has been the project's web portal.
Overall the SKYWATCH web portal has been visited by 4 200 individuals from 53 countries all over the world since June 2005. 57 % of them were from Greece, 10 % from the United Kingdom (UK), 6 % from Germany, 3 % from Switzerland, 3 % from Poland, 2 % from Hungary, 2 % from Sweden, 2 % from Romania, 1 % from the United States (US), 1 % from Bulgaria, 1 % from Belgium, while 7 % was from the European Commission. The rest 5 % came from various countries all over the world (Italy, China, Israel, India, Hong Kong, Brazil, Australia, even Iran and Indonesia).
Another interesting statistic regarding the visitors of the portal is the one concerning the page reference. 54 % of the visitors have visited the page directly, while 27 % visited the page following the http://www.sky-watch.org(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie) link from several web sites where this has been posted. This shows that the majority (81 %) of the project's web site visitors, on one hand have already been informed about the project before they entered the portal, and on the other hand visited the portal on purpose and not by chance (e.g. searching the web for something else, similar in title, and got mislead to SKYWATCH), thus were interested specifically in the project.
The interest and participation in the contest was great, since 95 teams comprising of 250 individuals from 30 countries have registered. Eventually, 53 projects have been successfully submitted in the 3 age categories. During the project's third meeting, the evaluation committee was gathered in order to assess the submitted projects. After the evaluation, the committee concluded that the initial schedule of the contest had to be altered due to the submitted projects' number, level and overall potential. It was decided that 11 projects should proceed in the contest, as they were all too interesting to be left out, in contrast with the rest of the projects that either were not consistent with the contest's rules, or lacked in terms of originality, clarity or interest in such a degree that forbids them to qualify to the next phase.
The SKYWATCH scientific committee ranked the submitted projects for each one of the evaluation criteria in a scale of 0-5, according of course to the respective age categories. The 53 projects were eventually ranked by the sum of ranks of the 9 criteria. In the second age category six projects were assessed as too interesting to be left out, while in the adult category only two projects were considered to be good enough to be awarded.
Overall the SKYWATCH web portal has been visited by 4 200 individuals from 53 countries all over the world since June 2005. 57 % of them were from Greece, 10 % from the United Kingdom (UK), 6 % from Germany, 3 % from Switzerland, 3 % from Poland, 2 % from Hungary, 2 % from Sweden, 2 % from Romania, 1 % from the United States (US), 1 % from Bulgaria, 1 % from Belgium, while 7 % was from the European Commission. The rest 5 % came from various countries all over the world (Italy, China, Israel, India, Hong Kong, Brazil, Australia, even Iran and Indonesia).
Another interesting statistic regarding the visitors of the portal is the one concerning the page reference. 54 % of the visitors have visited the page directly, while 27 % visited the page following the http://www.sky-watch.org(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie) link from several web sites where this has been posted. This shows that the majority (81 %) of the project's web site visitors, on one hand have already been informed about the project before they entered the portal, and on the other hand visited the portal on purpose and not by chance (e.g. searching the web for something else, similar in title, and got mislead to SKYWATCH), thus were interested specifically in the project.
The interest and participation in the contest was great, since 95 teams comprising of 250 individuals from 30 countries have registered. Eventually, 53 projects have been successfully submitted in the 3 age categories. During the project's third meeting, the evaluation committee was gathered in order to assess the submitted projects. After the evaluation, the committee concluded that the initial schedule of the contest had to be altered due to the submitted projects' number, level and overall potential. It was decided that 11 projects should proceed in the contest, as they were all too interesting to be left out, in contrast with the rest of the projects that either were not consistent with the contest's rules, or lacked in terms of originality, clarity or interest in such a degree that forbids them to qualify to the next phase.
The SKYWATCH scientific committee ranked the submitted projects for each one of the evaluation criteria in a scale of 0-5, according of course to the respective age categories. The 53 projects were eventually ranked by the sum of ranks of the 9 criteria. In the second age category six projects were assessed as too interesting to be left out, while in the adult category only two projects were considered to be good enough to be awarded.
