Vicki Last

Role

STEM Educator - AfRIS (Astronomy for Remote and Island Schools)

Background

I am a marine ecologist at heart and by training (BSc Zoology; MSc Tropical Coastal Management; PhD Marine Science), having worked for many years in academia and environmental consultancy focusing on human impacts on biogenic reefs. The desire to inspire and educate children about science and the environment led me to change tack, however, leading to roles in an outdoor nursery and local schools as an Early Years’ Practitioner and an ASN (Additional Support Needs) assistant respectively, alongside voluntary roles as a STEM ambassador, and as a STEM club leader. I am now thrilled to be delving into the wonders of the cosmos with the fabulous Schools’ Observatory team and to help inspire and inform children in some of the remote and island schools of the Scottish west coast about the joys and wonders of astronomy.

Favourite Astronomical Object

If pushed hard to name a single favourite astronomical object/body, it would have to be the Moon. Celebrated throughout the ages, it’s an object so familiar to us all yet which never ceases to be a source of wonder and awe. It is also crucial to structuring life as we know it – setting and synchronising biological clocks, stabilising our climate and driving the tides.

About me

In my spare time, what little I seem to have of it, I love nothing more than adventuring with my family around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, an area I am very fortunate to call ‘home’.