Knowledge STEMs from Communication

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UCT Departmental Open Days

During her time as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cape Town, Dr Tana Joseph was heavily involved in promoting the field of Astronomy to the general public, and in particular, to school learners. She was integral in helping to organise the twice-annual Astronomy Open Days in our department where school learners come to the department for a full day to hear about, and get hands-on experience in what astronomers do and how to go about studying to become an astronomer. As part of the Open Day, Tana interacted with the learners and answered their questions, presented talks on how to go about studying in the field, as well as keeping track of the feedback from the learners to find out what they learned, what they enjoyed, and where they thought things could be improved for the Open Days.

Dr. Sarah BlythDeputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at UCT

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UCT Astronomy Job Shadow programme

Dr Joseph ran the Astronomy Job Shadow programme in the University of Cape Town Department of Astronomy while she was a postdoctoral fellow there. This involved keeping track of the large number of learner applications and doing the difficult job of scheduling busy faculty members and postdoctoral researchers to take on job shadow students. She often went beyond the call of duty, taking on learners to shadow herself when no one else was available – she did not want to turn any keen and interested students away. The success of her work in this area can be seen today through the many job shadow learners who visited the department and who have since entered UCT to study Astrophysics!

Dr. Sarah BlythDeputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at UCT