Come along to CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory and participate in the Festival of Space; a science week long schedule of activities that invites everyone to participate in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) activities in a fun informal setting, so that STEM and space science can be seen as part of everyday life, activities are available for all ages, to members of the public and school groups a full programme of events is available at www.bco.ie.
November 12 “Down to Earth” - - Investigating Ecosystems
14:00 – 15:30: River Runner – Free Entry
Join us for River Runner, a documentary which uncovers disturbing truths about the River Lee whose ecosystem has been seriously damaged since two ESB dams went into operation in the late 1950s. This locally made film highlights some much-forgotten, valuable and unique assets of the upper Lee Valley and the extraordinary and unique Gearagh, an inland alluvial river forest delta. There are only four such deltas on planet earth; the Gearagh being the last one ecologically intact. Meet director Declan O Mahony; local ecologist Kevin Corcoran (West Cork Walks) and featured salmon angler Alan Nolan post screenings for Q&A. The movie will be introduced and post event discussion moderated by Bernie Connolly, Cork Environmental Forum. Sign your name to the petition “Save the unique inland river forest delta on the river Lee in southern Ireland”
16:00 – 18:00: Screening of This Changes Everything– Free Entry
Filmed over 211 shoot days in nine countries and five continents over four years, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change. Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction best-seller This Changes Everything, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond. Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better. Post screening Q&A moderated by Bernie Connolly, Cork Environmental Forum.
18:00 – 20:00: Know your Lichen Citizen Science workshop – Free Entry
Four free drop-in workshops with Paul Whelan from ispynature.com. During the 30 minute investigations families explore the hidden world of the Blackrock Castle lichens and discover the mysteries of these micro systems. Specimens will be mapped online at http://www.lichens.ie/. Be a citizen scientist and upload your own findings from home to ispynature.com
19:00 – 20:00: Wolves in Ireland – Free Entry
Join Dr Kieran Hickey for Wolves in Ireland; a Natural and Cultural History. Hickey will talk about his use of archaeological and historical evidence, name evidence and folklore to explore the history of wolves in Ireland. He will also discuss the possible reasons for the wolves’ decline and ultimate extinction in Ireland (the last wolf killed in Ireland was in about 1786), and the controversial issues surrounding reintroduction. Dr Kieran Hickey is from Cahir, Co. Tipperary. He revived his MA in Geography for University College Cork and his PhD in Geography from Coventry University. His research interests include historical and current climate change, coastal vulnerability to climate and sea-level rise in Ireland and the natural and cultural history of wolves in Ireland. He is currently a senior lecturer in physical geography with UCC. Post-event discussion will be moderated by the Cork Nature Network.
November 13 “Cosmic Careers” A STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering,Art, Maths) Showcase
18:00 – 20:00: Little Bits Workshop – Free Entry Four x 30 minute family friendly, drop-in workshops. Unleash your creativity with easy-to-use electronic building blocks; make circuits, build inventions and join the Little Bits revolution to put the power of electronics in the hands of everyone during this intro workshop. In association with Cork Electronics Industry Association and Tyndall National Institute.
18:00 – 21:00: Giant Arcade Games – Free Entry Players will get the chance to pit their wits against some of the greatest retro games ever released! Super Mario, Pac Man and many more classic games will be available on our four large projected screens. The games are played using large buttons requiring coordinated team work amongst a number of participants.
20:00 – 21:00: Earth Observations for a Safer Planet – Free Entry
Dr. Valerie Cummins is IMERC (the Irish Maritime and EnergyResource Cluster) Co-founder & Director since 2010. IMERC is an ambitious initiative that is building on excellence in research, entrepreneurship, training and innovation to deliver 3,000 new jobs in a significant new maritime campus. This involves working on behalf of University College Cork (UCC) with the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), the Irish Naval Service (INS) & industry partners. The current drive is to stimulate enterprise connectivity, including incubating start-ups and facilitating foreign direct investment. Val brings considerable expertise to speak about Global Drivers for Data from Space including climate change, migration and depleting planetary resources on Earth and she shows how Irish researchers are building solutions using ESA’s Climate Change Initiative. This focuses on how vital satellites are for understanding climate change, and how space is playing a major role in climate research and climate change mitigation. The talk will be introduced and post event discussion moderated by Cathal O Mahony of MaREI – Marine Renewable Energy Ireland.
November 14 A Festival of Space - where the sky is no longer the limit! 
10:00 – 13:00: BuildSkills A free drop in workshop brought to you by Qualcomm for curious kids aged 8-12. Join our friends from DesignerDojo, Coderdojo BCO@Dell and Qualcomm to investigate fun, physics phenomena with BuildSkills electronic kits & helpful guidance from our STEAM mentors.
18:00 – 19:00: Cork Science Café – a free public talk Join the Cork Skeptics for “The Baloney Detection Kit”. Learn about skepticism, why it’s important, and how you can employ a skeptical approach to help you sniff out incorrect or suspect claims. Do ghosts exist? Have we been visited by aliens? Are vaccines dangerous? Was the world created 6,000 years ago? Can vitamins cure the common cold? Every day we are bombarded by strange and weird claims. How do we distinguish what is real and what is fantasy?
18:00 – 20:00: Stellarium Workshop – Free entry Four 30 minute free drop-in workshops with BCO astronomers and members of the Cork Astronomy Club. Explore Stellarium, a free, easy to use planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at the stars and discover other apps that guide your galactic way. November also marks The Einstein Centenary celebrating 100 years since Einstein wrote down the field equations of General Relativity; an important milestone in the history of physics. Learn how this amazing human feat of curiosity changed how we understand the world today.
18:00 – 21:00: Cosmos at the Castle– Free entry Topical science and astronomy content on our large screens
20:00 – 21:00: Sex in the Stars – a free public talk ***ADULTS ONLY*** Join West Cork artist, author & astronomer Nick Addey for ‘Sex in the Stars’ for a talk about constellation images and diverse cultural topics such as mathematics (really!), language, mythology and, of course, sex in quite a few of its various formats. It will be quite explicit….the mind might boggle, but when one considers the activities of all the ancient gods it is hardly surprising that there is a story to be told in the stars.
20:00 – 22:00: StarGazing Weather dependent – cloud coverage or rain means this will not take place Discover the wonders of the night sky in the courtyard with the Cork Astronomy Club who will lead guided stargazing along with our own BCO astronomers
November 15 Design Your Future
12:00 – 13:30: Junior Space Camp – €10 each, booking required
Design your future: Make a future habitat – what will a new house look like in 50 years’ time? Suited to 5-7 year old’s
