One provocation, lots of opinions

With the support of STFC funding, We the Curious partnered with City Academy Bristol to deliver a series of hands-on workshops to Year 9 and Year 10 pupils. The workshops encouraged participants to explore the question, “Should space science be a priority in the current time of crisis?”

The STFC funding allowed We the Curious to facilitate six workshop sessions involving two classes and three specialists. Over 14 hours of participatory discussions and debates took place, centred around the theme of space science. The workshops provided a platform for the students to interact with specialists working in research funding, environmental research, and the space industry. By engaging in these sessions, the students developed their ideas and explored various aspects of the topic, leading to the creation of TikTok-style videos to authentically express their perspectives.

I am very excited to hear young people’s opinions on space science. I think it’s so important that we listen to them and guide our efforts knowing that perspective.

Gemma Kerr, Content Creator, We The Curious

The students surprised both the experts and the We the Curious team with their complex, insightful, and diverse thoughts and opinions. The range of space-themed videos produced by the young participants reflected the deep conversations and interactions that underpinned their creation. One group delved into exploring different aliens’ cultures on Venus and Mars, influenced by conversations around cultural heritage and diversity in the UK. Another group highlighted the historical prejudices faced by female astronauts and the gender biases in the design challenges faced by women in the International Space Station. Additionally, some students expressed scepticism about space exploration, believing that resources should be focused on solving problems and exploring Earth.
They also discussed inequalities within the space industry and criticized the privileged position of billionaires in space travel.

The insights gained from the workshops surprised space industry specialist Adele Fox, who initially expected the students to be more excited and inspired by the sector. The negative views expressed by the students emphasised the need to challenge their perceptions and highlight the potential for the space industry to contribute to the betterment of humanity.

We want to do this with more schools…What has become clear is that just with one year difference, going from key Stage 3 to Key Stage 4, you see this huge difference in the way that the kids are responding. What happens when you talk to six formers, and what happens if you talk to groups from different schools? I think that is really interesting.

Adam Richardson, Digital Producer, We The Curious

To follow on from the project, the Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) worked with We The Curious to curate a panel session at the ASDC National Conference in Belfast, to bring the thoughtful insights and provocations from the students directly to the key funders of space science in the UK.

The panel were asked to discuss the question Do young people think we should explore space? ASDC invited reserve astronaut Meganne Christian at UK Space Agency, space funder Jenni Chambers head of public engagement at the Science Technology Facilities Council (STFC UKRI), and Miranda Lowe principal curator of crustacea at the Natural History Museum, to take part in the session and share their thoughts on the students statements coming from a mix of space and environmental science backgrounds.

The team at We the Curious had collated provocations from the students of the school that had taken part in the project to ask the panel and the conference delegates, in order to receive their thoughts and responses to them. They would then share these with the students at a later event.

After the conference We the Curious ran an event with the students involved in the project in November at the City Academy. This was an optional after-school event and received a strong turnout. The event was in two parts, the first was a storytelling and stargazing event in the school playground. This was a bespoke version of the events they had been running over the last year with the public. The narrative focused on how, over history, people have added to stargazing stories to reflect the needs and understanding of their time.

The second part was in one of the science classrooms where they laid out the cue cards with the student’s responses and the provocations used at the conference, alongside the conference responses. The TikTok videos the students had created and a video edited together with Meganne and Miranda’s responses from the conference were then shown. The reflections seemed well received by the students. The team were pleasantly surprised to see that the students spent time after the presentation to chat to them and explore the things they’d brought along in more detail.

"I thought it was really interesting to hear the justifications and opinions – it was great we were listened to" - student, City Academy

We the Curious built 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. City Academy is a secondary school with a catchment area across Easton and Lawrence Hill in Bristol, areas within the 10% most disadvantaged in Bristol. In 2021/22, 38.1% of students had free school meals, 79.3% classified their ethnicity as other than ‘white British’ and only 52.5% listed English as their first language. They were interested in We the Curious supporting them to introduce space science content into the curriculum. The project brought together space science specialists and young people aged 12-14 who have experienced social inequity, in a series of workshops that aimed to deliver inclusive activities that cultivated curiosity and a greater sense of belonging and relevance in STEM.

We the Curious developed 3 workshops for the students with input from City Academy to align their aims. Workshop 1 was facilitated peer discussion about perceptions and ideas about space science in school and posed the question Should we research things just because we are curious? Workshop 2 involved bringing in STFC researchers to develop the conversation and give the students the opportunity to pose their questions to them. The team wanted to facilitate a two-way conversation noting the importance of equality within the conversation, as well as knowledge sharing and exchange of information. To aid the facilitation of this workshop they held a training session, in advance of the 2nd workshop, for the researchers on authority sharing and public engagement. The 3rd workshop was all about supporting the students to express their opinion, encouraging them to think about what was most interesting to them about the question, or about space science - where was that curiosity leading them in space science? They were then invited to create short plays about that topic or the question “Should we research things just because we are curious?”

“I think that these workshops have a huge impact on our students. I think it's really empowering to give them a space to be heard and to be listened to. And that's helped by the sort of the culture and the environment that We the Curious develop within those sessions with the high student to adult ratio as well. I think it gives every single student the opportunity to voice their opinions, and I think lots of our students don't see themselves as being scientists. They don't see themselves being represented as scientists. And I think that's a real challenge for us at this school.” - Teacher, City Academy

Please see below the Explore Your Universe: Valuing Inclusion report by Jen DeWitt and Sophie Bartlett. This report delves into the findings from the grant programme and how effective the 6 inclusive outcome areas were.

Evaluation Report Explore Your Universe Valuing Inclusion