In March last year, I was delighted to win the Space Zone of I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out of Here. The prize was £500 to spend on an engagement project.

I’ve had a plan for a long term project with a school for a while. It would involve designing space missions to give kids an idea of what the engineering process is really like. The prize money gave me a chance to put my plan into action.

The first step was to hold a “Rocket day” at the Radcliffe School in Wolverton. The prize money helped to buy materials, including a bottle rocket kit, and prizes for the end of the day. During the day, the kids went into teams to design a mission to Mars. We went through the process of creating a specification, thinking about what such a mission would need.

Fancy a trip to Mars, anyone?

After a very enjoyable day at the school, it was time to start a more long term activity. I worked with two small groups of kids over a full term for an hour a week on Wednesdays. We went through the design process, voting for the best ideas, and eventually the kids came up with some great designs.

I had always wanted the project to be have a conclusion that was worth the effort. The idea was for the kids to present their designs to real professionals from the space industry. So, last week, we made the journey to the National Space Centre, where academics from Leicester university chatted to them about their work. The judges had nothing but praise for the kids and their work, but awarded a special prize to The Tortoise, a colony ship with great safety features.

Thanks go to the school for being open minded, particularly Will Jakeman for setting it up and Gill Callow for supporting me through the whole thing. The UK Space Agency also provided some funding to help with the final trip, and Sarah Hill at the National Space Centre was a great help.