Life through a Lens: Promoting STEM careers in Northern Ireland

W5, Northern Ireland's award winning science and discovery centre, is passionate about engaging young people and the public with science, technology, engineering and maths in all their guises. Our mission is to: fire the spirit of discovery, and in order inspire the next generation of scientists, innovators and explorers, we plan to deliver a schools and public engagement programme using our StarDome mobile planetarium and promote links with local industry and researchers.

The aims of this programme are:

1. To show the relevance and application of STEM to the space sector in Northern Ireland and also to everyday life

2. To engage young people with STEM, and as a result encourage the study of STEM subjects to key stage 4 and beyond;

3. To promote the wide range of global STEM careers available within this sector and the opportunities that these present.

4. To showcase and promote STFC technology such as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) through StarDome Planetarium shows

5. To use the StarDome to engage the public with Space Technology, Astronomy and Astrophysics in an innovative and accessible way.

1. We will forward information on participation and evaluation to all participants involved in the programme and encourage them to send it to other colleagues to raise awareness of the programmes goals.

2. We will work with the NI Space Office to provide information on the content and impact of the programme to representatives from the Space sector in Northern Ireland to encourage ongoing links and partnerships with schools.

3. We will feedback to the participating researchers regarding the evaluation, focusing on the impact of the public engagement activities to see how such an initiative could be sustained or used to help promote and engage other areas of research going forward.

4. We will also feedback to CEA regarding schools participation and evaluation of the programme and how this can then be further developed to support and promote the teaching of Space Science and promotion of careers in schools.

5. We will highlight details of this programme at education meetings such as ASE (Association for Science Education), NISEF (Northern Ireland Science Education Forum) and Department of Communities Learning Forum.

6. Information on participation and evaluation will be shared with our colleagues at ASDC to share with the science centre community and public engagement organisations across the UK.

7. W5's Marketing Manager will coordinate press releases and pictures with the regional press, targeting newspapers in the participating schools locality and highlighting the programme and its benefits to the students and teachers.