'Ticket to Antarctica' for Telford secondary school students
Students from a Telford secondary school are taking part in an exciting British Antarctic Survey programme that will see a digital time capsule delivered to the edge of the world.
Hadley Learning Community has signed up to the Ticket to Antarctica project which will see the name of the school added to the side of one of the search planes carried on the RRS Sir David Attenborough vessel.
It’s not the first time the students will have seen their school’s name up in lights – it’s also been added to the Artemis mission capsule “Integrity” due to navigate around the moon early next year.
STEM co-ordinator and subject leader of computing and IT at the school, Natalie Stewart, said: “We are all so excited to be joining such adventurous projects and we’re looking forward to regular updates from both teams as the carry out their missions.
“At HLC, we’re committed to giving our students as many enriching and engaging experiences in all kinds of subjects, and the opportunity to follow these amazing expeditions is a genuine thrill for all of us.”
The Ticket to Antarctica project gives people the chance to add their names to a digital time capsule that travels to the Rothera Research Station in Antarctica aboard the ship.
“We’ll be receiving weekly email updates and postcards from the journey allowing our students to follow the scientists and their work,” said Natalie.
“The project aims to inspire and educate the public, particularly children, about polar research and the importance of Antarctica.”
Hadley Learning Community’s links with NASA are just as exciting – the naming of the rocket follows a trip taken by two of its students to a NASA space camp in America earlier this summer.
Harry Yeung and Esmae-Hope Morton – who were both in year 8 at the time – visited Hunstville, Alabama for six days thanks to an innovative project.
Natalie accompanied the students as they took part in the Blue Skies programme run by The Jon Egging Trust which supports young people through the prism of STEM and aerospace.
“The programme is a three-year STEM-inspired syllabus which provides young people who face barriers to learning with long-term support and access to inspirational teams and individuals.
“The aim is to boost their confidence, academic engagement, aspiration and work-readiness. And thanks to the sponsorship of Northrop Grumman who are a platinum partner at JET and a key sponsor of the Space Camp, our students had the chance to travel to camp.”
At the camp, Harry and Esme-Hope joined other students to train like astronauts and learn to work as a team by solving challenging obstacles to ultimately return home safely during their team mission.
