Many of us owe our love of science and indeed science education in no small part to learning about the wonders of space at an early (even primary level) age. Rosalind’s STARS (Space TARgets Science), an ASB outreach programme, aims to bolster that engagement with STEM subjects and support current curriculum activities at two key transition points in a pupil’s education cycle, key-stage 2 (7-11) and key-stage 4 (14-16), by focusing on the ExoMars 2020 rover mission.
We hope to inspire pupils to engage/re-engage with STEM subjects through the topic of space science and the ExoMars mission and the Rosalind Franklin rover herself clearly has enormous potential to influence the opinions, both young and not-so-young, positively towards why space, science and the role humankind and technology development play in our understanding of other worlds. Rosalind’s STARS will provide role-models through face-to-face interaction with practicing space scientists and astrobiologists, many of whom are working on the Rosalind Franklin rover and her instruments. We also hope to further inspire and encourage involvement in STEM subjects through hands-on experience with meteorites at the Natural History Museum in London for the classes that win the design competition portion of the project and become “Rosalind’s Stars”.
We envisage Rosalind’s STARS to impact positively on pupils thoughts and perceptions about science, and their own personal aspirations for involvement and career options in the future, which we will attempt to record through teacher and pupil feedback, supported by data-capture on sign-up to the project, social media and web sites, and level of engagement with Rosalind’s STARS activities.