The Telescopes in Schools (TiS) programme does pretty much what it says on the tin!
We aim to encourage a healthy sense of wonder and curiosity in high school students and the school community along with a positive connection with tertiary education via the medium of observational astronomy.
A typical year of TiS involves many different activities (such as talks at schools, participation in festivals and events both on campus at the University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus and also offsite), but the backbone of the programme is our work with partner schools, of which we currently have 13, including those situated in both metropolitan and regional areas. We have a special focus on government schools at this time and also a keen interest in promoting women in STEM.
TiS’s success stems from its simplicity: once we partner with a school, we lend them a very high-quality, research-grade telescope which they typically keep for 3 years. We support teachers to use the telescope and run observation nights for their students, staff, parents and community. Key to the programme is our involvement with volunteers from the University of Melbourne’s School of Physics. When possible, these volunteers attend observation nights to mingle with the community. The focus is not necessarily on astronomy education, but rather on promoting a good relationship between the school community and tertiary education in general.
There is nothing like a good role model!
Please feel free to use the Contact Us tab if you would like more information on this fantastic programme!
Telescopes in Schools 
What a fantastic program !!
I would like my school included in the pilot also – Mornington Secondary College – Nepean Hwy Mornington 3931
Please contact me at smi@mornsc.vic.edu.au
Hi Sue,
Thank you for your interest. At the moment we are concentrating on the Northern and Western suburbs of Melbourne, but we hope to expand the program over the next few years. I will contact you shortly to let you know just how we plan to expand and how Mornington Secondary College could get involved.
Likewise – I’d love to get involved at some point. Sounds like a great concept, although distance is most likely a factor for us :).
Sean Carroll
Heywood and District Secondary College,
Gorrie Street, Heywood 3304.
Carroll.sean.C [at] edumail.vic.gov.au
Hi Sean,
Also great to hear the program is getting such interest from schools all over the state. Yes at the moment you are probably just too far away for us to be a full participant in the program, but as the program progresses, we hope that schools like yours can be included as with today’s technology, no-one is really too far away. You certainly have the skies for an amazing astronomy program. I will contact you with regards to these possibilities soon.
I am obviously too far away as well – but also have great dark skies and would love to be notified re future possibilities.
Wonderful!
Marion Martin
Highview College
21 Kars St,
Maryborough VIc 3465
Hello Marion and Highview College. Thank you for the interest in our program and I will certainly include you in any updates and expansions of the program in the future!
The rpogram is just fantastic . yes distance will be a factor !!
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Hello Chitkara School, India.
How wonderful to hear from you and thank you for the comments on the program. Yes distance is definitely a factor! Do let us know if you are starting up your own Astronomy club, it would be fantastic to compare notes with you from halfway around the world.
Just wanted to say how much our College, particularly the Science Faculty and students have appreciated to be involved in TiS since the start of this term. Jacinta and Shane have been fantastic in supporting us and we have some great plans for 2013. It really has promoted what possibilitiesScience can provide for students.
Dale Barry GSC
Thanks Dale,
We look forward to working with everyone at Gisborne Secondary College next year and it has been our absolute pleasure to do some Astronomy and promote Science with you.
We had eleven observation evenings and although we some cloudy nights, our studenys really enjoyed the guest speakers and workshopd run by Jacinta and University of Melbourne Astrophysics students as alternative activities. The students became confident in using the telescope and enjoyed great views of the rings of Saturn, phases of Venus, craters on the Moon, the redness of the planet Mars and the Transit of Venus. We can’t thank the TiS Program enough and look forward to picking up where we left off next year.
Thanks David,
We are also looking forward to working with Charles La Trobe College again next year. It has been an absolute pleasure working with the students and watching them take over the telescope and get excited about Astronomy.
Anu more resources on subject? Im interested 🙂
Thanks for your interest Naama, we will be continually posting as many resources as we can, as soon as we can, so continue to look in on us!
My students and I have been talking a lot about starting an astronomy club as we are planning to learn about astrophysics in Year 11 Physics. We would love to be a part of this program and were wondering how do we get involved? Thank you,
Daniel J. Horvat
Braemar College, Woodend
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for getting in touch with us, we would love to have Braemar College involved in the Telescopes program. I will send you through some details shortly!
Wonderful program for the schools. Wish they were available in my area of the USA. How many schools are in the pilot program now? Seems like a grand opportunity for the students. FYI: Found your site while researching info for my telescope website: Orion Telescopes
Thank you Michael. We have just enlisted our tenth school into the program! We are very excited. Can I suggest that if you are really interested in a similar program that you do approach the Astrophysics department of your local University or College. We would be happy to offer advice and help facilitate the beginning of a similar program in the States.
What an incredible program!! It is so great that Melbourne is doing all it can to provide their students with the right tools to get them interested in astrophysics. If anyone is looking for some more information on how to get started with telescopes and a short history I found this link to be helpful:
http://www.become.com/hub/electronics/optics/telescopes-and-binoculars/
Thanks Jessamine, the interest is certainly growing and it is wonderful to be reaching out to so many budding Astronomers. Thank you for the suggested link too!
Hi There
This program sounds fantastic! I have been put onto this by a student and parent and it would work beautifully with the astronomy program I am trying to start up at our college. Any chance of getting it out to Geelong at all or is it just Western Metro Melbourne?
Thank you
Ahmed Mulla
Geelong Lutheran College
Hello Ahmed, thank you for your interest in the program! I believe I have spoken with a student and teacher from the college previously. I am certainly happy to strike up a conversation as to how the Geelong Lutheran college can get involved in the program. I will be in touch shortly with further details on how that might happen.
My daughter had the opportunity to view the skies through the auspices of Gisborne Secondary College. Her primary school were invited to attend and had a fantastic evening. The skies were unfortunately cloudy but Jacinta provided the students with some great information and some terrific activities. We were then all invited back again later in the week where we experienced a clear night. The view of the moon was terrific however Saturn had to be a highlight. Thanks Gisborne Secondary College for inviting us.
Thomastown Secondary College would like to be apart of this program. Please contact me at doraisingam.shobashini.s@edumail.vic.gov.au.
Hello Shobi, I would be very interested in talking with the staff at Thomastown SC about getting involved in the program! We are just now in the position to look at expanding our program beyond our initial pilot schools so I will be in contact shortly.
This looks like a fantastic opportunity. Is there any chance you will be expanding the program to regional schools? (perhaps we could Skype or Teleconference?)
Hello Renee, thank you for your interest in our program. We do have a couple of regional schools involved and Skyping and teleconferencing is certainly a possibility. I will be in contact with more details shortly.
This looks like a fantastic program and a wonderful opportunity for those schools who are participating! Are you expanding beyond the initial pilot schools at all? We have been discussing running astronomy evenings with our whole school community (including inviting our local primary schools) and would love to join the program if more places open up. In addition to the extra-curricular opportunities, it would provide valuable learning experiences for our Big Bang theory classes at Year 10, our astronomy education in year 7 and our VCE Physics classes, just to name a few areas we would use it.
Thank you,
Sarah Moore,
MacKillop College, Werribee
Hello Sarah, I would love to talk to you more about our program and how MacKillop College may get involved. Please email me through the Contact page with your details and we can see how to progress.
I’m a grade 5/6 teacher at lalor east primary school. We will be studying the solar system in term 1 of 2016 and i had ideas of organising a sleep over to view the night sky. Unfortunately i no longer have access to the telescope i was planning to use. I came across your ‘telescopes in schools outreach program’. Although this is a secondary program i was wondering if you might have any program or opporrunities to allow us access to a telescope for the night and any team members who might guide us through the night sky. I’d really appreciate any feed back on this idea (which is stil in the very early stages of planning) or some advice about who else i might ask.
Hello Ruth,
Can you please contact me through the contacts page and I will email you my details and a few possibilities. We can then chat about how we might be able to work something out for your Space sleepover.
Cheers
Jacinta
Hello from Kolbe catholic college Greenvale lakes. The program sounds fantastic. Could we please be a part of it? I have some very interested students in vce physics ?