ORBYTS: Establishing researcher-in-school partnerships in the Midlands and North-East

UK science education faces substantial shortages in physics teachers, with 1 in 7 UK schools not having a physics teacher [1]. Meanwhile, science generally in the UK has significant diversity issues, with only 20% of post-16 physics students being girls [2], and Black and low-income background students being highly under-represented at all levels of physics from GCSE onwards [3,4].

Students from the lowest income backgrounds are 3 times less likely to study A-level physics and 6 times less likely to get an A grade than those from the least deprived backgrounds [e.g. 4]. In addition, the ASPIRES research project showed that young people from lower socio-economic areas have less access to science engagement opportunities and therefore typically have lower science capital [5].

The Orbyts programme aims to address these issues by partnering passionate science researchers with groups of school students to work on original science research projects. In 10 weekly after-school sessions throughout the academic year, researchers mentor school students on original research projects, giving the students ownership of the research process. Through these partnerships, school students become actively involved in STFC research.

The Orbyts programme empowers under-served communities to connect school students from all backgrounds with science. Orbyts projects have been successfully running with researchers from University College London since 2016, where the model has been iterated and developed over the successful delivery of more than 100 research-with-schools projects. To date, over 200 school students have authored peer-reviewed scientific publications through the programme [7].

The majority of these students are from widening access groups. Programme evaluation shows that Orbyts delivers profound improvements in inclusivity (e.g. the programme sees 100% increases in girls taking A-level physics when run at GCSE and similar impact across income background and ethnicity, e.g. [6]). Orbyts partner teachers report a secondary impact that Orbyts increases their desire to remain in teaching, inspires their teaching delivery, improves their specialist subject knowledge and impacts the wider school community. This secondary impact on Orbyts partner teachers increases science teacher retention in UK schools.

Orbyts has since begun to expand outside of London to Northumbria University, the University of Leicester, and the University of Kent. Leicester and Newcastle were both identified as the highest priority (priority 1) areas in the UK governments levelling-up scheme, indicating the lower socio-economic status within parts of these cities. The Northumbria Hub is now in its second year having successfully piloted 2 researcher-school partnerships in the 2021-2022 school year and has expanded this up to 4 researcher-school partnerships for the current academic year.

The Leicester Hub, established in the current academic year, are piloting 2 research-school partnerships. Expanding the Orbyts programme to include Leicester and Newcastle will provide a huge opportunity to school students in these areas.

The STFC Spark funding will fund 9 new researcher-school partnership projects in state schools in both Leicester and Newcastle allowing Orbyts to expand researcher-school partnership engagement opportunities in the Midlands and North East, incorporating exciting new STFC science areas. The projects will impact 90-180 school students the majority of whom are from groups historically-excluded from science, increasing science uptake post-16 amongst these students.

The 9 new projects would also impact 9-18 teachers directly as well as the broader impact across the school [e.g. see testimonial by D. Fleming [6]) and would provide teacher CPD and retention boosts across 9 schools where there are already specialist shortages. Ultimately, Orbyts aims to inspire a new generation through UK space exploration and space science.