Last Monday, Year 7 visited Northumbria University as part of a project that will be run throughout the Year 7 curriculum over the upcoming terms. The purpose of the visit was to explore various aspects of space, including research, careers, and experiments. The pupils had the opportunity to see specialist equipment and experiments that are being used as part of worldwide projects to explore communication in space. They were given time to talk with lecturers, students, and researchers, to ask questions about what they do, why they do it, and their career paths.
We explored a CubeSat Music torch, where pupils used light to send music to a satellite. Pupils worked together to try to fit different components into toy plastic CubeSats, and they had the opportunity to use an interferometer educational kit to observe interference patterns on a wall. It was a really interesting day and a great time was had by all.
Some of our pupils said:
‘I loved learning about the other space careers you could have, and to be honest, I didn't even know some of them existed!’
I didn't realise that being an artist to write space fact books for kids could be a space-like career. That is the type of career that I would like in the future.’