Seaford U3A News

The current lull in U3A activity makes a good opportunity to showcase some of the groups which have run successfully over the past few years.

In 2019, as an experiment, seven members joined together in a member’s house to view a course on FutureLearn, an independent teaching website (https:// www.futurelearn.com/) partly owned by the Open University. At this time the U3A had a subscription to FutureLearn but this and many other courses are also available to the general public on its website. Some are tailored to professional development but many others are of general interest. This was the first time that FutureLearn had been used by Seaford U3A and it was shown to members using a laptop connected to a wide-screen television.

The course was entitled ‘In the Night Sky: Orion’ and gave members the opportunity to explore the night sky, to discover how to look specifically at the constellation of Orion. Some of the photography was superb and the general quality of presentation of the course was impressive. Although some of the course was quite technical the members who viewed it enjoyed it and in particular the discussion of

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points raised. Members were fortunate in that one of them had an advanced knowledge of and interest in astronomy. At the end of the course the group visited stars are formed and

the Planetarium at Chichester.

In January/February 2020 a four-week course on Climate Change ran in a member’s house for six members. Weeks 1 and 2 used courses prepared by the University of Exeter for FutureLearn.

Week 1 of the U3A Climate Change course set out the basic science of climate change and the members taking part were able to learn the science of global warming, as well as the difference between ‘natural’ and human-induced’ warming, looking back over millennia, and current and possible future impacts of climate change. Week 2 dealt with general categories of potential solutions rather than specific examples, dividing them into general categories of mitigation, adaptation and geo-engineering. Weeks 3 and 4 used material from a variety of Internet sources, from YouTube, from the Ecosia website (Ecosia is a search engine which aims to use advertising revenue to plant trees), some from different FutureLearn courses and some from news websites and Government sources.

The U3A course was packed with information, which members found interesting and which gave them a sufficient introduction to the subject to enable them to take their interest further if they wished to do so.

Not all U3A groups focus on science in one shape or form, though by coincidence a new science group had been planned for September 2020. The subjects range from this to languages, literature, music, art, history and indeed anything which a group leader would like to put forward. On future monthly pages there will be more detail about some other groups which have been enjoyed by members.

For more information about Seaford U3A visit the website www.u3asites.org.uk/seaford.To find out about membership email seafordu3a@gmail.com sending your postal address for a welcome pack.

Image: Orion Constellation c/o Shutterstock.com.

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