Coinciding with National Space Week, On Wednesday, a group of Years 11 and Lower Sixth students travelled to The National Space Centre in Leicester for the GSA Girl Power: Beyond earth’s boundaries conference.

The aim of the conference was to inspire more young women to study STEM subjects in Sixth Form and at university, leading them to pursue careers in those fields.

The keynote was delivered by Dr Alice Bunn, who is the International Director at the UK Space Agency. Throughout her career Dr Bunn has been in programs to encourage students to engage with space missions. She collaborated with the WISE Campaign to create a set of classroom resources based on the space sector to encourage primary school children to study physics.

Following the keynote, the students engaged in five workshops lasting 25 minutes. These explored areas such space engineering, how other subjects sit alongside STEM, health challenges associated with spaceflight, satellite applications and a gallery tour of The Space Centre.

After lunch, students had opportunities to meet the scientists and ask questions. The day ended with the planetarium show, which tells the story of the challenges of the Apollo moon landings and the many people who worked on the missions along the way.

Sara Bhandari (Lower Sixth) said: “The conference and workshops allowed us to explore and gain an insight into many different areas of astronomy and the space industry. We engaged in several conversations with experts who suggested many thought provoking ideas, which inspired us to develop our understanding in various fields. Overall, we agreed that the trip was a very informative and motivated us all to further explore our interests in possible STEM related careers.”