Project Summaries

Aberdeen Science Centre

Building on the success of "Science My Way" in 2023, co-developed and delivered through STFC Impact, ASC plans to develop and grow their long-standing relationship with their community partners, Family Learning, who help parents and children from disadvantaged areas or underrepresented groups, with a key audience being children aged 8 to 13 years. Together with Family Learning they will explore new topics and co-develop activities by combining Family Learning’s knowledge of participants and using the experience of their Community Engagement Team. A key goal for their community partners is for young people to have an opportunity to explore and see a better future for themselves. They would also like participants to gain new skills and knowledge, both in life and STEM skills.

Their approach is to provide relaxed sessions, allowing children to choose what they’d like to engage with and for how long. They will deliver 19 sessions across 6 different programmes, including Supper and Science, After School Club, Youth Club and a 2-day family residency course.

Outcome areas chosen: Possible Selves, Relevance

Armagh Observatory & Planetarium

Building on the success of their 'Bold Futures' programme, Armagh Observatory & Planetarium will further engage with their local community and children with additional needs by continuing with their already established youth forum. The youth forum group advises on the SEN events delivered on site and the accessibility of the centre. The project will focus on on-site programmes targeting underrepresented groups to visit onsite by creating an accessible two-hour monthly weekend and two-hour afternoon programme utilising our subtitled shows, sign language shows and a new Makaton dome show currently in development, which will be ready for delivery March 2024. They will also invite special schools to visit the accessible dome shows providing a fully funded visit. The aim is to provide six fully funded onsite visits for local special schools, six fully funded afternoon visits for local charities who work with children and adults with additional needs and 6 fully funded weekend events which will last from 3pm-5pm to include a dome show and workshop for local community groups and families.

Outcome areas chosen: Relevance, Possible Selves Skills Development, Social Connections

Cambridge Science Centre

Cambridge Science Centre (CSC) will continue and expand its partnership with North Cambridge Community Partnership (NCCP) to enhance the North Cambridge community’s connections with CSC, STEM, and the world-class STEM work done in the City. This project will particularly focus on the engagement of the ~15 young-people who are members of an ongoing STEM Club run with NCCP that was initiated by previous EYU support.

The project will include local STEM professionals and students working with the club members, with a focus on the club redefining how they want the club to run and what it should focus on. CSC believe it is critical that young people and the community partners have an agency and, thus, ownership of CSC’s programmes and spaces so that they can build a sense of belonging within a science venue and drive social connections with STEM industries. Using STFC astronomy and space science to pose a challenge of how humans can live on the moon, CSC will run two open-ended 6-week STEM Clubs that allow young people to identify problems, test solutions, report solutions, and pose follow-on questions – expanding on the co-creation format initiated in the EYU4 project.

Outcome areas chosen: Agency/ownership, Belonging, Social Connections

Catalyst

Catalyst will be placing Explore Your Universe (EYU) on their Public Programme from 20 April – 19 May. Admission costs to the show have been waived to remove any barriers to participation and maximise their public engagement. This will incorporate much of their local community into the project, with the objective throughout the delivery phase being to also work alongside their community partners: Widnes Library Science Club and GLOW youth group. They will develop a programme of activities, starting with open discussions and taster sessions within the community group’s own spaces before inviting them to engage with EYU at Catalyst.

Visitors and members of these groups will be asked to critique elements of the science show, considering its relevance to them. Catalyst will develop a revised Explore Your Universe science show with support from STFC partners, incorporating the feedback from their community partners. Its purpose will be to supply members of their local area with a sense of ownership and empowerment to participate in science. The new show will include developing new demonstrations and approaches to content, with increased hands-on involvement. Much of the work that Catalyst aims to do with their community partners is to support and provide them with the confidence and tools needed to encourage participation in STEM topics.

Outcome areas chosen: Agency/Ownership, Relevance, Possible Selves

Dundee Science Centre

Dundee Science Centre will expand on the success of their partnership with St Mary’s Primary School by delivering STEM engagement for a greater number of children and their families.

A key aspect of the programme includes a sustainable legacy outcome, ensuring programmes can continue through the training, development, mentoring support and equipment they provide the support staff and teachers. Upskilling and increasing science capital in their adult influencers, together with follow up mentoring, will grow confidence in the school staff and ensure a lasting impact on the youngsters.

Their aim is to inspire and co-create experiences that children and their families can share in together, improving their sense of belonging, expanding curiosity and confidence to participate and explore their different engagement opportunities. This will build on the learning from families learning together in our Connect galleries in-Centre; and from feedback from their Wonder-based STEM Clubs.

Outcome areas chosen: Belonging, Possible Selves

Dynamic Earth

Dynamic Earth will evolve their existing partnership with The BIG Project using a unique programme of mobile planetarium content, specialist kit and hands-on crafts, which explore topical and timely STFC science. They will co-create and deliver multiple engagement sessions with The BIG Project’s Roots Club and Tuesday Club, which provide targeted community work with children between the ages of 7-12. Within the delivery period, they will deliver 6 in-person events which have been co-created with community group leaders, the young people who access services and Dynamic Earth. These will include a combination of presenter-led planetarium shows in their portable planetarium, hands-on arts experiences which will focus on space science, hands-on activities and a visit to Dynamic Earth.

Outcome areas chosen: Possible Selves, Skills, Relevance

Jodrell Bank

Jodrell Bank will connect young people from disadvantaged areas with ground-breaking research in astronomy, with the aim of nurturing their aspirations for a career in science and technology alongside developing an understanding and belief that this is a ‘possible future’ that they are able to realise.

Collaborating with their community partners IntoUniversity, a charity that supports young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to attain their chosen aspirations and OnSide, a national youth charity determined to make sure that all young people have the opportunity to shine, the chance to discover their passion and purpose, they will plan an exciting and enjoyable day out for the young people aged 11-14 years. The focus for the day will be an introduction to the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, an international project in which the UK is participant, with the aim to present participation in this project as a ‘possible future’ for the young people who visit, but also to generate excitement for science and tech jobs in general. The SKAO is a large-scale international astronomy project which will have many opportunities for this generation going forwards.

Outcome areas chosen: Belonging, Possible Selves

National Space Centre

The National Space Centre will deliver their Space Mile project for children aged 9-11 that attend a school within the 1-mile radius of the National Space Centre (~30min walk). They will engage with primary school science leads to identify students who are interested or have potential in STEM and eligible for Free School Meals.

Six schools will be invited to ‘partner’ and put forward 20 students for the programme from March – June. The programme will run two cohorts of three schools, each for 8-weeks, spanning across the school holidays. After School activity will take place at the learner's schools with an invite to take part in a two-day holiday provision at the National Space Centre and providing an industry visit to Space Park Leicester. Family members will be invited to a culminating celebratory event.

Outcome areas chosen: Belonging, Possible Selves, Developing Skills, Social Connection

Royal Astronomical Society

Using the inspiring stories of the Herschel family, and the links to their lives in Slough, the Royal Astronomical Society will deliver a series of workshops to celebrate and create wonder around topics such as infra-red light, constellations, comets and telescopes. Each workshop will be delivered at Slough Museum to children from Years 5-8 over four weekends. We aim to encourage attendees to complete all four workshops to earn badges and a completion certificate in Astronomy through the Herschels. This will give each child a total of 8 hours of delivery across the project timescale, with repeat interventions as opposed to a one-off session, a more impactful model for long-term influence.

Our outcome areas are: Possible selves, Develop new skills, and Social Connection

Specific project details will be updated soon

Techniquest

Techniquest’s community group are seven Merthyr primary schools, all located in an area with high levels of multiple deprivation. Working with our Community partner who is the lead teacher of the school cluster there will be a class in each school participating in the Technispace programme. This programme will include a Space Day at each school with at least 4 activities, co-developed by the teachers and partners from space related companies /organisations with the aim of increasing understanding of relevance to our everyday world, research and careers in the space sector. The same school groups will then have the chance to visit Techniquest and take part in a space quiz and watch a planetarium show.

Outcome areas chosen: Relevance, Possible Selves

We the Curious

We the Curious are building upon their partnership with City Academy Bristol, with the aim of increasing minoritised young people’s sense of confidence and agency in discussing STEM subjects. This project will bring together space science specialists and young people aged 12-14 who have experienced social inequity, in a series of workshops that deliver inclusive activities that cultivate curiosity and greater sense of belonging and relevance in STEM. Participants will have:

- a more diverse experience of what counts as STEM (beyond traditional content, skills and practices)

- a more diverse experience of who counts in STEM (beyond traditional representations).

Outcome areas chosen: Belonging, Relevance

W5

W5 are partnering with Market Development Association (MDA), an organisation established to promote the wellbeing of residents living in the Markets Area of South Belfast. The partnership’s aim is to provide co-designed programming and resources for young people in these areas, building sustained and beneficial collaboration across all aspects of this community. W5 will work with young people aged 8-14 years old in exploring how technology can be used as a tool to address critical issues in sustainability in towns and cities, particularly around making them inclusive, safe and resilient. The project will use satellites as the focus of STFC science as it brings together coding, big data and can used to make observations and allows students to include engaging media on their websites. Big data is a concept that is mentioned in the media but through this programme the W5 team hope to demystify the concept, and make the science and technology behind it interesting, relevant and most importantly fun and engaging for the young people involved.

The core activity of the programme involves designing a three-page website. Through this process, themes related to Big Data in STFC science will be discussed including:

• The WhoWhatWhereWhenWhy of STFC Big Data
• How Big Data is used in STFC Facilities
• Focus on Satellites - Remote sensing and control
• Encourage the integration of satellite data in web pages - including inserting referenced images