Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

About Sophie Bartlett

Sophie is an educational researcher based in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University in the UK. Sophie employs both quantitative and qualitative methods in her research to explore how individuals’ learning experiences influence their attitudes, aspirations, and sense of empowerment.

Sophie completed a Bachelor’s degree in Astronomy before going on to earn a PhD in Astronomy and Physics Education. Her thesis explored how astronomy can be used as a point of engagement for the secondary/high school physics curriculum, and yielded an evaluation framework and series of recommendations for teachers and practitioners.

At the OAE, Sophie is working on producing a review of evaluation practices and a toolkit to aid astronomy education practitioners in evaluating the impact of their initiatives. The review will account for the myriad of variables and circumstances under which astronomy education is carried out across the NAEC network, so that practitioners can best understand the impact of their work and directions to take in the future.