I know that the biggest issue I would face with this is not going off topic. I’m a much bigger nerd on extrasolar stuff but after going through Blue and Bronze I feel like I learnt nothing but at least there wasn’t anything that was wrong.
If I was teaching it I could easily get to gravitational waves. It would only take a single cadet to ask about the sun in future and then going on about star cycles into black holes into collisions into complex physics behind accretion disks and gravitational waves. At which point pretty much everyone else in the room is a falling asleep because I lost them so long ago.
Maybe following ascribed lesson plans is to keep us in check more than to teach the cadets. After all if we as big nerds as this thread suggest most of people actually interested in this thing would probably only need to revise the technical names before finishing the exam for silver.
Suppose we will have to wait and see what silver space is like and how much work the extended project they are planning to launch takes.
Years ago I watched a documentary (Horizon I think) on String Theory. Yes it was gobbledegook to me as a non scientist but it was still engaging TV. So that’s probably where we need to pitch it. Carry the bulk of the class along with essential material
good teaching and I’m happy for you to (try to) explain gravity waves to me in the pub after final parade.
Thing to consoder is what do we actually want to achieve with the space (and indeed cyber) courses. At the moment they are quite academic without a clear link to the RAF/defence. The classification system is clearly linked to aviation and air power. The problem is that both space and cyber suffer from massive over (security) classification which limits what we can teach to cadets. Hopefully the upcoming space launch from Cornwall with RAF pilot onboard will encourage more cadet interest
I completely agree. I think there is scope to make cyber more defence related, but it would mean us teaching the Silver level rather than leaning on the OU as an external provider.
Plenty of people in industry who could help with resources - many ex services (and ex cadets). I’m sure there are in Space too.
Gold cyber is taught by RAF personal and quite linked to RAF polices on coping with attacks and attack vectors (more attacking than civvie equivalent course) but below that level the teaching is just making up for the lack of cyber security covered in schools. Important skills of course but it would work a lot better if everyone came in with a higher level of understanding from schools rather than the typical ‘don’t post stupid stuff online it never disappears’ they get from PSHE and e-safety.
Having it taught would also add to the quality of the silver badge. In my opinion it is the silver badge that requires the least amount of learning/effort to achieve but other may be easier and it’s just my own knowledge giving that bias.
Honestly doing it in a pub would make it easier as I could easily think of some spirts analogies to describe it.
Carrying it with extra stuff outside the necessary info would mean that across the country actual knowledge gained and effort to get from it would vary massively but I suppose we can only pretend to be standardised so much.
Do you remember that time Tim and Carole launched it at RIAT… Before Covid was even a thing… Or is that just my post covid brain fog playing tricks on me.
That’s actually quite depressing. We can announce something (suggesting a fair amount of planning has already happened) and still not deliver it in the time an average cadet is with us.
It’s on the training hub under the Space section. We’ve downloaded it and then uploaded it to the school CCF Teams channel. Maybe you could download it and provide put it on a USB if the cadets bring it in?
