Satellite Architect - Save the day with space tech!

To exemplify how data from satellites can provide valuable insight into challenges here on Earth, increasing the scientific awareness of key stage three students, teachers, and their families. Through providing an opportunity to find creative and innovative solutions to real life problems, this project will give examples of how science and business, industry and academia can work together to innovate for a better world, powered by satellites.

The Spark Award will provide the funding to develop a standalone game which allows participants to experience the role of a satellite architect, in a reusable and entertaining manner, to directly engage students into undertaking STEM careers, in an inclusive manner. We also intend to release the game as a PDF 'print and play' version, to ensure it is accessible to audiences in digital poverty and promoting group usage and team working.

The Space Skills Alliance Census schooling figures show that people from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds appear to be under-represented in the space sector and this under-representation is regionally invariant. These data suggest that people who attended state non-selective schools are under-represented by nearly 25% compared to the general UK population.

According to the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), 10 of Oxford's 83 super output areas (SOAs) are among the 20% most deprived areas in England. These areas, which are in the Leys, Rose Hill, Littlemore, Barton and areas of the city, experience multiple levels of deprivation - low skills, low incomes, and relatively high levels of crime. As Satellite Applications Catapult is in Oxfordshire, we aim to target key stage three (KS3) school students, their teachers, and their families in these locations to support their STEM development and help overcome their under-representation in the space sector.

As the resource will be digital or printable and openly accessible, we aim to encourage science discussions within the families, advancing the science capital of family members who might not otherwise have chosen to engage with STEM subjects. In addition, using our network, we aim to increase the reach of the resource beyond the local Oxfordshire region, through to other areas of the UK with high IMDs such as: the West Midlands, North East England, North West England, and Yorkshire.

We aim to increase awareness of the space industry's ability and application to solve pressing global issues. In particular, we aim to improve understanding around climate challenges and ways they can be tackled using satellite data, which is closely related to the Satellite Applications Catapult's net zero and COP 26 initiatives. In addition, because of the Catapult's unique position in empowering the commercialisation of space innovation, the resource is also uniquely positioned to demonstrate how STEM and business can be combined.

After playing the game, the audience should come away with: - An understanding of 3 major types of satellites and their real-world applications. - An understanding of which subjects and skills are relevant to space careers - A feeling of value and accomplishment for solving a relevant environmental crisis.

- A feeling of inspiration and aspiration to pursue a STEM and/or space sector career. - An ability to effectively work as part of a team (where the pupils play as part of a team; they can also play solo). These outcomes will be achievable regardless of whether the resource is used in-person or online.

In addition, the game will build on applicable KS3 topics: - Introduction to space science and satellite applications. - Principles of gravity/orbital physics that dictate satellite coverage and revisit rate. - Principles of light wave physics that enables imaging in the visible light spectrum and beyond.

- An understanding of radio wave communication through ground segment capabilities (this also highlights STFC's ground segment capabilities).