News SpaceShipEarth – Sending STEMM Experiments to Space!

Dr Cornelia Connolly from the School of Education and colleagues from NUI Galway School of Medicine and the University of Limerick are collaborating on a SFI Discovery project ‘SpaceShipEarth.’

SpaceShipEarth (www.spaceshipearth.ie) is a research study to promote and engage young people in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine).

On Tuesday 15th June 2021 the team conducted their first workshop with over 300 primary school children attending from schools in Galway, Limerick and Kerry.  In the workshops children were taught about the importance of STEMM in our lives and how to ask interesting scientific questions and then to develop experiments to find the answers.

The project involves launching high-altitude space balloons into space carrying experiments from the young people.  When the experiments are returned, the class will engage in analysis and discussion – extending and deepening their learning.

SpaceShipEarth plans on launching July 2^nd at Valencia Co. Kerry.

Project website: www.spaceshipearth.ie