The Educator Magazine U.K. Jan-April 2025 issue - Magazine - Page 32
Launch your learning – why the National Space Academy’s free in-school science
sessions could be just the thing to ignite your students’ passion for STEM!
As part of the UK Space Agency’s Space to Learn programme,
the National Space Academy are bringing hands-on space
science sessions to secondary schools across the UK. These
sessions are fully funded so there is no cost to the school,
teacher or students. The workshops are curriculum-linked and
use the exciting context of space to get students engaged with
science and other STEM fields.
Hands-on workshops
Our workshops are aimed at students aged 11 to 16 (offered as
two half day sessions for two different groups of students) and
16 to 18 (offered as full day sessions). They highlight the science,
scope and possibilities within the space industry and are
delivered by specially trained teachers, known as Space
Advocates. Our Advocates know how to get the best of out
a class, ensuring that while your students have had an out of
this world experience, they’ve also learnt real, relevant science
which will support their curriculum learning and hopefully
inspire them to dig deeper into the ever-growing worlds of
space and science.
Choose your topic
Our workshops complement curriculum learning and enhance
understanding of different areas of space science. Choose from
topics including ‘Life in Space’, ‘Asteroids’, ‘Human Spaceflight’
and more. Sessions are tailored to the working level of the
students and we’re always happy to discuss how we can meet
specific needs.
Expert teachers
Our Space Advocates are a team of outstanding teachers who
are based across the UK. With a network of over 30 teachers, we
can’t promise to reach absolutely everywhere but we’ll certainly
try! All Space Advocates will be accompanied by their
fantastic kit package, featuring a great variety of experiments
and demonstrations, such as pressure suits, rocket launching,
real meteorites and much, much more!
Find Your Space
Alongside our in-person work, we also offer free resources
for teachers use in their lessons. Visit our website to see our
range of experiment and activity videos or check our careers
section. We’ve recently launched a second season of our highly
popular ‘Find Your Space’ careers videos, featuring real space
sector employees being very honest about their careers,
passions and pathways they took. Investigate careers such as
space lawyer, space journalist and even space artist! The videos
are accompanied by a set of classroom resources, enabling
educators to run their own mini careers events.
Fully funded
We want to break down barriers to participation, bringing these
exciting opportunities to students who otherwise may not
be able to experience them. Our workshops are fully funded
and cost the school nothing. We’ve set up a series of criteria to
ensure that priority is given to underserved students – although
any school is welcome to apply. The criteria can be found at
nationalspaceacademy.org/space-to-learn
Our current round of funding only lasts until the end of March
2025 and spaces are allocated on a first come, first served basis.
To ensure you don’t miss out, please apply as soon as possible
by visiting nationalspaceacademy.org/space-to-learn or
emailing spacetolearn@spacecentre.co.uk
