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Enthusiasm is one of the most effective tools for a teacher – and football has a lot of enthusiastic fans among schoolchildren. A new RAS200 project brings geophysics to the fans, as described by RAS Outreach Officer Lucinda Offer.

Football can be a very big deal at primary school, and the effects of a large crowd celebrating a goal can be literally Earth-shaking. A new RAS200 project aims to record the ground movements arising from goal celebrations as picked up by seismometers in schools around football grounds, as a way to show pupils what geophysics can do.  The project arose from a British Geological Survey project to set up seismometers in schools, and benefitted from the strong support given to Leicester City Football Club and local hero Jamie Vardy. Cheap simple seismic monitoring using Lego. and Raspberry. Pi computers also. helped. the project. get off the ground and it is spreading around. RAS200 partners the. National Youth Agency, the National Space Centre and the Leicester City Football Club Community Trust hope to spread the concept to other schools where football is a big deal and other football clubs. wanting to support STEM education in their local primary schools.